A Final Incompetence

Their Lordships, the five Justices of the High Court of Criminal Appeals, formally severed Luke Mitchell's appeal from the proceedings since he was not then represented by counsel. This was done so as to give him additional time with which to seek the advice of counsel but the justices formally advised Luke Mitchell they would expect any such advice of counsel to be consonant with a recognition that the present proceedings as continuing against appellant Nat Fraser declared the grounds of the appeal to be legally incompetent.

Oh what a fine nicety of the law! We are not now denying your appeal because you don't have a lawyer and we are giving you time to go get a lawyer but its obvious you will never be able to actually get a lawyer since we are now formally announcing your appeal to be legally incompetent.

What an awful mess. At age 14, Luke Mitchell gallantly set forth in the night to search for his overdue 14 year old girlfriend. Each and every member of the small search party stated to police that Luke's dog created a ruckus at a small cleft in the wall and only then did Luke Mitchell proceed to discover the naked and woefully bloody corpse of his girlfriend. After extensive and persistent police questioning the witnesses changed their recollections as to the dog having located the corpse rather than Luke Mitchell having done so. This of course gave the police, the prosecutor and the press the opportunity to repeatedly point out that Luke Mitchell had guilty knowledge of the corpse's location.

The press repeatedly harped on the fact that the injuries to the corpse bore a resemblance to the injuries suffered decades earlier in the Black Dahlia case that was oft mentioned by rock star Marilyn Manson. The press informed the public that Luke Mitchell was an obsessed fan of Marilyn Manson but failed to point out that there was not one reference on Luke's computer to the Black Dahlia and that the only Marilyn Manson CD found in Luke's home was one that was purchased after the murder. The press repeatedly described Luke Mitchell as a devotee of Satan but failed to point out that the school book scribbling they repeatedly described as satanic was in fact a quotation from a very popular computer game.

His girlfriend had struggled valiantly suffering extensive defensive wounds and almost total exsanguination but Luke Mitchell had nary a scratch nor a single drop of blood on him.

Although it was publicly announced that the crime was murder not rape semen was found on the girlfriend's body yet it was not from Luke Mitchell.

Meanwhile the police, prosecutor, press and public show not the slightest interest whatsoever in a male known to have been fond of the location where the body was found, known to have appeared disheveled at the time, known to have borne the next morning facial scratches for which there were absurd and ever-changing explanations and known to have penned an essay about having killed a girl within a week of the murder.

Ah the ever so fine niceties of the law: we will give you additional time to try to get a lawyer to represent you in a futile appeal but we won't even question much less arrest or prosecute the facially scratched violence-prone druggie and sex-offender whose dna was found on the corpse.

What is the use of having dna databases if such evidence as semen found on a murder victim is ignored? What is the use of having advanced forensics if a corpse is allowed to remain out in the woods unprotected from overnight rains and morning dew that will clearly wash away evidence deposited by the attacker? What is the use of having juries if they accept ownership of a Marilyn Manson CD as proof of murder? What is the use of having guidelines for the questioning of a 15 year old youth if all judges do is mildly rebuke the police for their obvious excesses?

Clearly, the one lesson to be learned is that when the police want you they will not shift their focus elsewhere. Obtaining counsel may availeth naught but going without counsel is utterly absurd. The police, prosecutor and press have all railroaded Luke Mitchell and allowed a known sex offender to go unprosecuted.