He pleaded not guilty. Despite the lack of forensic evidence, he was convicted and later jailed for 20 years - but has always maintained his innocence despite losing three appeals. Jodi's devastated family still believe Luke committed the crime and his conviction should be upheld.
Now, a new Channel 5 documentary, Murder in a Small Town, which airs tonight, is set to question the safety of the conviction with a fresh investigation carried out by two former police officers who now work as private investigators. Police Scotland deny the claims saying they are "satisfied" that a thorough investigation was carried out and that "no other individuals" needed to be traced. Teenagers Jodi and Luke grew up in neighbouring districts in the small community of Dalkeith, and began dating in March At a gap in an old stone wall, halfway down the path, Luke shone his torch into the darkness and found the blood-soaked body of the teenager, with her arms tied behind her back with her own trousers.
She was virtually decapitated. Although he claims his dog, Mia, led him to Jodi, the police case against Luke would later rest on the fact that he was first to find the body. In the following weeks and months, Luke was treated as the only suspect in the murder and demonised for his Goth lifestyle. Satanic slogans found on his exercise books were leaked and he was said to be a dope-smoking devil worshipper, obsessed with Marilyn Manson and the unsolved Black Dahlia case.
After the longest trial of a single accused in Scottish legal history, a majority verdict convicted Mitchell and he was sentenced to life , with a minimum term of 20 years to be served before parole. In the years following the verdict there has been some unease at the circumstantial nature of the case, but an appeal was rejected last year.
Now Mitchell's new defence team is preparing to apply for a fresh appeal based partly on the original forensics investigation, the details of which have never before been made public. The new defence team say the original police forensic service laboratory report and biology report contradict the prosecution case that the murder did not have a sexual motive, as semen was found on Jodi's body.
The reports also show, the new defence team says, that a blood sample found on her produced a full DNA match with a named individual and a second full DNA profile, for an unknown male, was retrieved from a condom found near the body. The latter individual was identified three years later when he committed a crime and provided a match on the DNA database. Mitchell's current solicitor, John Carroll, said: "It [the DNA evidence] could put two people, two associated people, at the locus in circumstances that require an explanation.
If the jury had heard of this, a number of things could have arisen. Mitchell's original defence team had a copy of the reports but never raised them in court because of issues over who would pay for an expert opinion on the documents, according to Sandra Lean, an author studying wrongful convictions, who has been campaigning on Mitchell's behalf. Luke Mitchell, convicted of the murder of Jodi Jones.
Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Previous Article Salmond v Sturgeon — the fight of the century. Next Article Death by dangerous driving. Follow Following. Sign me up. Mitchell was ordered to serve at least years in prison after being found guilty. The case took nearly three months, it was restarted in front of a new jury, convened in four different locations and even ventured into the fresh air for an unusual visit to the murder scene itself.
It became what is believed to be the longest trial of a single accused in Scottish criminal history. During Mitchell's trial the prosecution attempted to show just how a year-old boy could become, in the words of the prosecutor, " a cool, confident, arrogant kille r". The jury heard that Mitchell was an obsessive fan of controversial American rocker, Marilyn Manson. The US star's website shows his obsession with a grotesque California murder in the s, which became known as the Black Dahlia killing.
Jodi's death and the wounds to her body held similarities, the prosecution argued. March , Mitchell was granted leave to appeal against his conviction and the length of his sentence at the High Court of Judiciary sitting as the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, on the grounds that the trial judge should have moved the trial outside the city.
They ruled that there was sufficient evidence in law that Mitchell could be convicted on.
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