The Slater Case

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 99, 16 May 1941, Page 5

The Slater Case

HE full story of the famous murder trial in Glasgow in 1908 when an elderly lady, Miss Gilchrist, was found murdered, was told by " Barrister" in his series "Famous Cases" ftom 4YA on April 28. After summarising the evidence, the course of the trial, and the much debated reprieve from execution to life imprisonment, the speaker went on: "Eighteen and a’ half years were to pass before Slater was again a free man. During almost the whole of that tinve

there were constant public agitations for a reopening cf the case. In 1913 an inquiry was held in Glasgow regarding some further evidence which had been produced for the defence, but apart from reviving public interest in the case, it didn’t alter the verdict or the sentence. Still the public protests continued. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was the main advocate in this, but all appeals fell on the deaf ear of officialdom. In 1928 Slater was released and at once appealed to the newly-formed Court of ‘Criminal Appeal in Scotland. Very little further evidence for the defence was produced on the appeal, but Slater’s counsel addressed the Court for 14 hours. He certainly had much to talk about. He stressed the fact that Slater was first connected with the crime through the police following a false clue, also the unsatisfactory nature of the identification evidence, and the fact that the hammer produced wasn’t an adequate weapon to have caused the injuries. During the hearing of the appeal, Conan Doyle expressed the hope that if the appeal succeeded, it would be on the facts and not merely through some rule of procedure, because in the latter event the question of ‘guilt or otherwise of Slater would for ever remain undetermined. The result was just what he feared. The Appeal Court seized on the fact that the Judge at the trial had made comments regarding the lesser degree of proof necessary for a conviction in the case’ of a man of bad character. The Appeal Court held that this was a mis-direction to the jury, which may have improperly influenced them in their verdict and they allowed the appeal on that ground. This decision had the effect of acquitting Slater of the charge, but he didn’t attempt in any way to establish either his guilt or his innocence, and the case must forever remain in that unsatisfactory state."