Thomas Muir's trial has lessons for today, Dean says

The importance of the right to a fair trial is the key lesson for today from the notorious 18th century trial of Thomas Muir of Huntershill, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, James Wolffe QC, suggested last night.

Mr Wolffe was speaking at an event held by the Faculty to mark the 250th anniversary of Muir's birth, at which the historian Professor Sir Tom Devine gave a scene-setting lecture, and Faculty members staged dramatic reconstructions of parts of the trial.

Muir was convicted of sedition at the High Court in Edinburgh in 1793 and sentenced to 14 years' transportation.

Before an audience in the First Division courtroom which included Lord Carloway, the Lord Justice Clerk, Tricia Marwick, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, and Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Mr Wolffe said Muir had been a practising advocate who, in an age of revolution, promoted democratic ideas which were seen as subversive. While he was facing trial, and a fugitive from justice, the Faculty expelled him from membership. 

"Soon after that trial, concerns were being expressed that the political climate of the times had resulted in an unacceptable erosion of civil liberties and in the 1840s, a monument was erected in Calton Cemetery in memory of Muir and the other political martyrs of the time", Mr Wolffe continued. "In a litigation about the erection of the monument, one of the judges, Lord Fullerton, pointed out that 'the convicted traitors of one age become the martyred patriots of another'.

"And in 1853, the great Scottish advocate and judge, Lord Cockburn, wrote of Muir's trial: 'This is one of the cases the memory whereof never perisheth. History cannot let its injustice alone.'

"Like Cockburn, we, today, acknowledge the injustice of Muir's trial, and constitutional democrats of all political parties and none honour Muir's commitment to political liberties which, today, all of us take for granted.

"In his address to the jury which convicted him, Muir said this: 'When our ashes shall be scattered by the winds of heaven, the impartial voice of future times will rejudge your verdict.'"

The re-enactment was adapted by Ross Macfarlane, advocate, from the printed transcript of the trial, and retold the trial using the actual words of those involved. Lawyers taking part included Donald Findlay QC, Gordon Jackson QC, Neil Murray QC, Anna Poole QC, Alex Prentice QC, Paul Brown, Frank Burr, Brian Crook, David Nicolson, Iain McSporran and Iain Smith.

"As you rejudge the trial of Thomas Muir, I invite you to reflect on the lessons which the trial holds for our own times", Mr Wolffe added. "I invite you to reflect on the importance of maintaining our commitment to the right of every accused person to a fair trial, whatever may be the nature of the crime alleged, and whatever may be the temper of the times."

Professor Sir Tom Devine commented: "I have never taken part in such a unique event and want to congratulate the Faculty for the truly inspiring decision to look again at one of the most famous, some would say infamous, trials in Scottish history."