THE wife of a Royal Marine jailed for life for shooting dead a Taliban fighter will launch a fresh bid this week to clear his name.

Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 41, who grew up in Brighton, was handed a life sentence two years ago for murdering the wounded captive at close range with a 9mm pistol in Helmand province during September 2011.

Now wife Claire, 43, of Taunton in Somerset will submit an appeal to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission in Birmingham on Wednesday after supporters donated more than £750,000 for her fight.

In May last year a Court of Appeal bid to overturn her husband’s life sentence failed.

His lawyers claimed “grave errors of law” were committed.

This latest appeal will be Sgt Blackman's last chance to get his case back into court when the Criminal Cases Review Commission makes its decision.

The man spearheading that effort, QC Jonathan Goldberg, will run the case in "a very, very different way" to the original, said Conservative MP Richard Drax.

"Manslaughter was apparently never offered to Alexander Blackman, which it should have been," he said.

But Mr Drax pointed out it was not Parliament's job to get involved in the retrial process and a campaign had simply helped maintain a high profile for the case while Mr Goldberg assembled his report.

Footage from another marine's helmet-mounted camera showed Blackman quoting Shakespeare before shooting the insurgent.

He told the victim: "There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil" he swore at him before saying "it's nothing you wouldn't do to us".

Proud mother Frances Blackman, from Bevendean, said: “I hope it is going to help him, that is all we can hope for. The point is he should not be where he is. He was doing his duty.”

Sgt Blackman, who attended Bevendean Primary and then Patcham High, denied murder, stating at his trial that he believed the Taliban fighter he shot in Helmand province in September 2011 was already dead and he was taking out his anger on a corpse.

Mrs Blackman added: “He said he [the insurgent] was dead, and I believe him. It is lucky his father is not alive, because this would have broken his heart.”