Gerard Sinclair LLB is Chief Executive of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC).
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, established by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.
Gerard Sinclair is qualified in both Scots law and English law. As a solicitor in private practice for 19 years, and a senior partner with a Glasgow law firm, his legal experience covered all areas of criminal, civil and commercial litigation. He has served as a member of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland and is also involved on the Law Society Criminal Law Committee. In May 2006 he was appointed a part-time sheriff.
Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Irish law, it is one of the three legal systems of the United Kingdom.
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures.
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.
Gerard Sinclair became the SCCRC's Chief Executive on 30 June 2003. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Commission, and for ensuring the efficient and expeditious progressing of the Commission's cases. The SCCRC conducted a review of the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and in 2007 referred the case back to the High Court of Justiciary for a fresh appeal.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya, and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted, by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was found not guilty and was acquitted.
The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, 11 years, 4 months and 13 days after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under Scots law and held at a disused United States Air Force base called Camp Zeist near Utrecht.
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or the former Sheriff Court building in Edinburgh, or in dedicated buildings in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The High Court sometimes sits in various smaller towns in Scotland, where it uses the local sheriff court building. As an appeal court the High Court sits only in Edinburgh.
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England, where the office originated. There is an analogous although independently developed office in Iceland that is commonly translated to English as sheriff, and this is discussed below.
A sheriff court is the principal local civil and criminal court in Scotland, with exclusive jurisdiction over all civil cases with a monetary value up to £100,000, and with the jurisdiction to hear any criminal case except treason, murder, and rape which are in the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Justiciary. Though the sheriff courts have concurrent jurisdiction with the High Court over armed robbery, drug trafficking, and sexual offences involving children, the vast majority of these cases are heard by the High Court. Each court serves a sheriff court district within one of the six sheriffdoms of Scotland. Each sheriff court is presided over by a sheriff, who is a legally qualified judge, and part of the judiciary of Scotland.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by Her Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under the Scottish legal system is responsible for prosecution, along with the area procurators fiscal. In Scotland, virtually all prosecution of criminal offences is undertaken by the Crown. Private prosecutions are extremely rare.
The murder of Jodi Jones, a 14-year-old girl, took place in Easthouses, Scotland on 30 June 2003. Her 15-year-old boyfriend, Luke Mitchell, came under suspicion, but it was several months before he was arrested. Mitchell was tried for the murder and after Scotland's longest single-accused trial, Mitchell was convicted in January 2005. He was sentenced to detention without limit of time with a minimum of 20 years even though there was no DNA evidence.
The courts of Scotland are responsible for administration of justice in Scotland, under statutory, common law and equitable provisions within Scots law. The courts are presided over by the judiciary of Scotland, who are the various judicial office holders responsible for issuing judgments, ensuring fair trials, and deciding on sentencing. The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland, subject to appeals to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and the High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court, which is only subject to the authority of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on devolution issues and human rights compatibility issues.
Ranald Norman Munro MacLean, Lord MacLean is a retired Scottish judge.
William Taylor, QC has been a Scottish advocate since 1971 and a QC since 1986. Mr Taylor has also been a barrister in England and Wales since 1990 and a QC there since 1998. He has specialised in criminal defence work since the 1980s.
Professor Robert Black QC, FRSA, FRSE, FFCS, ILTM is Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh. He has been an Advocate in Scotland since 1972, was in practice at the Bar and became a QC in 1987.
Graham John Thomson Forbes, CBE is a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh from 1990 until June 2017.
Sir Gerald Gordon CBE, QC HonFRSE is the editor of Scottish Criminal Case Reports and of Renton and Brown's Criminal Procedure, and author of The Criminal Law of Scotland.
David Belfall was Chairperson of Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector and was a Non-Executive Member of the NHS Lothian Board for a four-year term beginning in 2004.
James Mackay QPM retired as Deputy Chief Constable of Tayside Police in 2001. He has had considerable experience of criminal investigation and major inquiries. He is especially interested in forensic science and has served on national committees particularly in the field of DNA in police investigation.
Ruth Anderson, QC has extensive experience of the criminal justice system. She was admitted as a solicitor in 1972, and as an advocate in 1991, taking silk in 1999. Her practice at the Bar has been principally a criminal one, defending in the High Court of Justiciary. She also served as an Advocate Depute from 1998 until January 2001. Miss Anderson has had local government experience and has also worked in private practice as a solicitor. She was appointed a part-time Sheriff in May 2003 and a full-time sheriff in September 2006.
Graham Clark Bell OBE QC is a Scottish advocate.
The Court of Criminal Appeal is the name of an existing court of Scottish law and of historic courts in England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Tony Gauci was the proprietor of Mary's House, a clothes shop in Tower Road, Sliema, Malta, who was a pseudo-witness in the Lockerbie Bombing investigation.
The Sheriff of the Lothians and Peebles was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order and bringing criminals to justice in The Lothians and Peebles, Scotland. Prior to 1748 most sheriffdoms were held on a hereditary basis. From that date, following the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the hereditary sheriffs were replaced by salaried sheriff-deputes, qualified advocates who were members of the Scottish Bar.