The murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar occurred in November 1998 in Overtown, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Seventeen years later, in October 2016, a conviction was made. This was only the second time in Scottish legal history that a person was tried twice for the same crime.
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Murder
Three men confronted Surjit Singh Chhokar on the night of 4 November 1998. Ronnie Coulter, his nephew Andrew Coulter and another man, David Montgomery, went to see Chokkar following a dispute over a £110.70 Giro cheque. Chhokar was stabbed three times, with one wound piercing his heart. Chokkar collapsed in front of his partner Liz Bryce.
Re-trial
Ronnie Coulter was eventually convicted of Chhokar's murder at a re-trial in October 2016 at the Glasgow High Court. He had previously been acquitted of the same crime in 1999. At the re-trial, Alex Prentice QC prosecuted, Donald Findlay QC defended, and Aamer Anwar acted for the Chhokar family.
This controversial case raised a number of complicated legal issues, including the double jeopardy rule, as well as institutional racism on the part of investigating police and prosecutors, and has parallels with the Stephen Lawrence murder in England.
On 31 October Coulter was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum period of 19 years and 8 months (twenty years, including the four months he had already spent in custody).