In the news this week: Two miscarriages of justice watchdogs have ruled that the name of Scots hero William Wallace can never be cleared.
The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission was asked to review Wallace's 700-year-old conviction, widely regarded as trumped-up charges against the man who led the Scottish army in the Wars of Independence. Typically bureaucratic, the body decided it has no jurisdiction over the London court that found him guilty of treason.
The head of the Commission indicated that he "was asked whether we could consider the conviction of William Wallace. I had to point out that, as he had been tried and punished in London, it did not fall within our jurisdiction, but would be for the English Commission to consider."
The case will also not be referred to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it would not be in the public interest to do so.
Scots historians have long claimed that William Wallace was wrongly convicted of treason in London in 1305, accused of betraying an English crown he did not recognise. Many of these experts have been keen to see a review of the case, saying the trial was designed to show that English law held sway north of the border.
Professor Tom Devine of Edinburgh University, said: "The treason charge was simply a concoction based on the assumption that Scotland was a province of England and in that sense it was a mistrial. Scotland had been recognised as an independent nation by the Papacy and, therefore, any treason charge was just a reflection of an arrogant English monarchy."
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