No pardon over 18th century murder conviction, campaigners told

The Scottish Government will not recommend a royal pardon for a man hanged for murder in 1752, campaigners have been told.

The Herald reports today that an application on behalf of James Stewart, convicted of the "Appin Murder", to put his name forward to the Queen, has ben turned down.

Stewart was said to be party to the murder of Colin Campbell of Glenure, a Hanoverian who was shot while on his way to evict members of the Jacobite Stewart clan from their land. Aliean Breck (Alan Breck) Stewart was named as the actual perpetrator, but evidence of his involvement is said to have been lacking, thereby undermining the case against James Stewart. The senior presiding judge and many of the jury were also members of the Campbell clan.

An official letter has said that the First Minister's powers to request a pardon are "necessarily used sparingly", and that the criminal law authority David Hume had regarded the verdict as correct.

Mr Stewart's cause had been taken up by another Campbell, retired lorry driver John Campbell from Motherwell, who has spent 20 years researching the case and instructed Glasgow solicitor John Macaulay to make the application. He has previously applied unsuccessfully to the Scottish Crimial Cases Review Commission.