Summary
AT 11.35am in the ornate, wood-panelled surroundings of Edinburgh's court of session, the shadow of suspicion was finally lifted from Shirley McKie. With just minutes to go before the hearing began on Tuesday in court No 4, the Scottish Executive's lawyers offered pounds-750,000 to the former police detective and admitted that she had been wrongly accused of leaving her thumbprint at a murder scene.
Had the case gone ahead, it would have threatened to become one of the most controversial in Scottish legal history. At stake was the very reputation of fingerprint science in Scotland. Those to be called to the stand included two Scottish government ministers; police chief constables; Scottish fingerprint experts and the Lord Advocate, the country's highest-ranking law officer.See the full content of this document
Extract
Shirley Mckie: Was It Really an Honest Mistake ?
Despite the Scottish Executive's insistence after the settlement that the misidentification was an "honest mistake made in good faith" and that everyone involved could now "move on", the cloud of controversy that has followed this case for almost a decade still refuses to clear.
This weekend, previously unseen documents passed to the Sunday Herald will expose how the case has opened up a massive rift in the Scottish Fingerprint Service. More disturbingly, however, they will also place a huge question mark over whet...See the full content of this document
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