Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby
Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby PC, QC ( born June 7, 1953 in Falkirk ) is a British Labour Party politician and lawyer.
Life and career
He attended Brunswick High School and George Watson 's College in Edinburgh and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics ( "Economics " ) at Manchester University. At Edinburgh University he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws ( LLB). He was an attorney in private practice from 1978 to 1982, before he was in 1983 admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. In 1991 he was "Legal Associate" of the Royal Town Planning Institute ( RTPI ). From 1993 to 1995 he was "Advocate Depute ". In 1995 he became Attorney-General ( " Queen's Counsel "). He was focused on the administrative law.
As a university student, he joined the Labour Party, but she left again to join the breakaway Scottish Labour Party ( 1976-1981 ). He shared the distrust of the SLP - founder Jim Sillars against the Labour Party and its path in the implementation of regional political autonomy for Scotland. Boyd went to SLP for the 1979 general election, but received only 176 votes. When the SLP disbanded after the defeat in the election, Boyd returned to Labour, unlike Sillars, who joined the Scottish National Party.
After the 1997 election Boyd was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland. On 24 February 2000, he was promoted to Lord Advocate after Andrew Hardie was appointed as a judge. Boyd was appointed the same year to the Privy Counsellor. On 4 October 2006 he stepped down as Lord Advocate. Boyd left 2007 to act Faculty of Advocates as a consultant for the law firm Dundas & Wilson. He told the newspaper, The Herald: "This is to my knowledge the first time. I do not think that a Lord Advocate has this ever been done before: retire from the judicial service and Solicitor ".
Membership in the House of Lords
On 11 April 2006 Downing Street announced that Boyd will get a seat as Cross Bench Peer Life. However, he was Advocate Member of the Labour Group after his resignation as Lord. According to the announcement on the appointment Boyds member of the House of Lords this nomination caused a stir and for a heated debate in Scotland. Opposition politicians criticized in particular that the independent position of the highest representative of the judiciary get through the appointment of a not originally planned, greater political weight.
Boyd defended his appointment: "I remain still obliged to devote myself to the role of the Lord Advocate to lead the Crown Office, and chief prosecutor of the Crown to stay ( " Prosecutor Fiscal Service ") and to investigate a series of reforms that I propose four years had initiated. The appointment to the House of Lords is a natural extension of my duties as Lord Advocate and a development that allowed me to represent the interests of Scotland within and at the level of the United Kingdom. "
He was formally incorporated on 3 July 2006 the House of Lords. Boyd's title comes from Duncansby Head in Caithness, a popular place for family outings, because he lived as a child in Wick. In the upper house, he heard a special committee, the " Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform " since 2007. When his political interests Boyd indicates constitutional issues, criminal justice and environmental issues. From 2008 to 2009 he was a member of the "Committee on Scottish Devolution".
Public controversies
Lockerbie trial
. Boyd's role as Lord Advocate included the management of the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing, between May 2000 and January 2001 Of the two defendants was one, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah acquitted; the other, Abdel Basset Ali al -Megrahi, was convicted on 31 January 2001 of the 270fachen murder and was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Despite the rejection of the revision on 14 March 2002, the conviction of Abdel Basset Ali al -Megrahi remained controversial. Evidence of the process have been questioned and there were doubts about the credibility of important witnesses loud. According to The Sunday Times of 23 October 2005, the former Lord Advocate Peter Fraser described the main witness, a shopkeeper from Malta, as follows: "not quite the full shilling " and " an apple short of a picnic. " Boyd asked Fraser to a clarification his statements about these witnesses and to clarify what he meant by these remarks.
Fingerprint affair
In February 2006, Boyd was drawn into the so-called "fingerprint controversy " in the criminal case against Shirley McKie, which ended in a settlement out of court with a compensation of £ 750,000. As Solicitor General Boyd was responsible for the prosecution of Detective Constable ( DC) McKie. McKie was accused of four officials of the trace evidence of the Scottish Criminal Record Office ( SCRO ), they would have left fingerprints at the scene of a 1997 murder case in January. McKie had, however, disputed that claim. McKie was arrested in March 1998 on charges of perjury, but during their trial in May 1999, the fingerprints were dropped as evidence and she was acquitted.
In June 2000, a senior Scottish police officer, James Mackay was from the Crown Office, tasked to investigate the case. His interim report in August 2000 indicated that the evidence had come through collective manipulation and collective collusion of officials of the crime scene about. Then, the four officers were immediately suspended by the SCRO and Scottish Ministers were informed. Mackays confidential final report Boyd was presented in October 2000. This remained unpublished, were released through excerpts in The Scotsman newspaper in February 2006. Mackay concluded that " cover-up and criminality " at the SCRO had occurred and recommended the prosecution of those involved. The newspaper also reported that Boyd decided in September 2001 to take any action. The four officers were reinstated. In June 2007, The Scotsman raised the question of whether Boyd's decision to initiate any criminal proceedings against the SCRO officers, have to do with the investigation of the Lockerbie bombing, where he represented the prosecution. As the eyes of the world were focused on the Scottish justice system, the credibility of the Scottish judiciary could be undermined in terms of the Lockiebieprozess when the SCRO case would have been pursued. Tom Dalyell, a former parliamentarian of the Labour Party, Boyd asked to reconsider its position, while the Scottish MP Michael Russell insisted that Boyd could not continue his work as Lord Advocate. A committee of inquiry on this case was established and began its work on June 2, 2009. Boyd's successor Elish Angiolini agreed to testify against him.
Offices and honors
In 2000 he became a Fellow of the Society of Arts. Since 2007 he is member of the Law Society of Scotland.