 On 30 May 2012, Fraser was convicted of the murder of his wife, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a punishment part of seventeen years.The Supreme Court ruling was controversially attacked by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill MSP who threatened to withhold funding for the court on the grounds that it was undermining Scottish judicial independence.In addition, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond MSP convened an expert group to limit the referral of Scottish cases to the court on human rights grounds.