|
Country code |
GB |
|
Repository code |
234 |
|
Organisation |
NAS |
|
Repository |
National Records of Scotland |
|
Reference |
GD1/1499 |
|
Title |
Papers of Leslie Reade regarding the release of Oscar Slater |
|
Dates |
1923-2006 |
|
Access status |
Open |
|
Description |
Oscar Slater's wrongful conviction for the murder of 82 year old Marion Prince on West Princes Street in Glasgow in December 1908 is regarded as one of the more significant miscarriages of justice in Scottish legal history and helped lead to the creation of the Scottish Court of Appeal in 1926. Arrested in New York, Oscar Slater was sentenced to death in 1909, but had his conviction commuted to life imprisonment shortly afterwards. After serving nearly two decades in Peterhead prison he was finally released in November 1927.
Leslie Isaac Reade (1904-1989), KC, practised as a barrister and was heavily involved in the campaign to overturn Slater's conviction, working to support court proceedings as well as bolster political support and public opinion. He was also instrumental in the, ultimately unsuccessful, campaign to have the Scottish Government compensate Oscar Slater for his legal fees. Oscar Slater regulalry turned to Reade for advice and requested that he intercede on his behalf with jurists, judges, newspaper editors and one of Slater's most famous supporters, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The collection sheds some light on the Jewish dimensions of the Slater affair: Reade's use of the 'Jewish Chronicle' to build support for Slater, and Slater's own ocasional references to his Jewish identity. |
|
Level |
Fonds |
|
Format |
Manuscript |
|
Archival history |
Purchased by National Records of Scotland from Carpe Librum Books, Massachusetts, USA, March 2021. |
|
|
|
|