Trial of Oscar Slater. First edition, 1910. Notable Scottish Trials

Trial; Slater, Oscar, Defendant; Roughead, W.

Publication Date: 1910

About this Item

Inscribed by William Roughead on the half-title. Inscribed by William Roughead [Trial]. Slater, Oscar [1872-1948], Defendant. Roughead, William [1870-1952], Editor. Trial of Oscar Slater. Edinburgh and Glasgow: William Hodge & Company, [1910]. Frontispiece and 14 additional illustrations, including two folding maps. lxxx, 321 pp. Original cloth, gilt title to spine, top edge gilt. Light shelf wear. "George P. Norman from Wm. Roughead" to half-title, light toning to text. A very good copy. $350. * First edition. A title in the series Notable Scottish Trials. Wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death, Slater was freed after almost 19 years of hard labour at Scotland's Prison Peterhead through the efforts of multiple journalists, lawyers and writers. The publication of this book in 1910 by Roughead convinced many of Slater's innocence. In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Case of Oscar Slater, which was a plea for a full pardon for Slater. Roughead assisted Arthur Conan Doyle, Craigie Aitchison and William Park for nearly 20 years exposing weaknesses in the Crown's case and was cited as a witness in the 1928 appeal. Slater was given a monetary award of ?6,000 to compensate for his years in prison. The lessons of the Slater miscarriage were considered, as late as 1976, by the Devlin Committee's review on the limitations of identity parades. More recently, the Slater case has been revisited by several scholars and writers. Seller Inventory # 73522

Bibliographic Details

Title: Trial of Oscar Slater. First edition, 1910. ...

Publication Date: 1910

Binding: Hardcover

Illustrator: Inscribed by William Roughead on the half-title

Edition: 1st Edition