Midlothian killer Luke Mitchell's legal team have handed a petition to the Scottish Government in a bid to release him from prison.
More than 25,000 people have signed the pledge, with the 31-year-old maintaining his innocence after he was convicted in 2005 for the murder of his girlfriend Jodi Jones, after her body was found in woodland near Dalkeith in Midlothian in 2003.
Sentenced to at least 20 years in prison, Mitchell's legal team made up of Scott Forbes and criminologist Dr Sandra Lean handed in a petition at Holyrood on Wednesday afternoon.
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They handed in two brown envelopes that contained the petition to MSPs including Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as well as Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
Mr Forbes, a former solicitor, and criminologist Dr Lean claim they have collected more than 120 items of evidence that were never forensically tested.
Dr Lean, said: "We are asking for a review of how justice is being pursued in our names in Scotland. We have so much evidence that this investigation was a sham.
"I have been working on this case since 2003. The police said they did this in the name of the Scottish public but, 25,500 people are saying the investigation was 'not in my name'.
"It's not good enough, the way they [police] carried out this investigation and how they used the press to demonise a child with no evidence."
Mr Forbes, said: "We want a KC led inquiry into the police investigation of Luke Mitchell who at the time was 14 years-old. He was a child. He wasn't given any human rights or children's right.
"We are now in the parliament with a petition of 25,500 signatures asking for an independent inquiry. The boy was fitted up. The police made a murderer out of a schoolboy.
"She was beaten dragged, kicked, punched and strangled and there was no DNA found on her. I got involved from day one because I thought somebody else killed her and I never felt safe for the boy or the boy's conviction"
The petition states the following: "The 2005 conviction of Luke Mitchell for the murder of Jodi Jones in 2003 requires an urgent and fully independent inquiry. There are far too many unanswered questions to consider this conviction safe.
"In the spirit of true justice and transparency, we, the undersigned, demand that all evidence and information be released to an independent panel (not the SCCRC) for scrutiny, comment and recommendations. The people are willing to raise funds to contribute to the cost of such an inquiry.
"There will be a peaceful vigil outside the Parliament on the same day."
A documentary by Channel 5 had seen many question raised about the conviction after the programme investigated claims that it had been a miscarriage of justice.
Murdered when she was 14-years-old, Mitchell was found guilty of Jodi’s murder following a ten-month-long police investigation.
With the documentary prompting fresh support of his innocence, Jones' family had hit out at the claims, who spoke out about the hateful abuse they had received.
Speaking at the time, a family member had said: "We were shocked at people on social media openly criticising the family of a murder victim, suggesting they were involved. A disgusting allegation and despicable position to put them in when their suffering continues.
“Channel 5 and the ‘investigators’ have made the family’s suffering so amplified from all of the abuse from these armchair sleuths based on a biased and one sided programme. Why can people be so blinkered and forget the family?”
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