The
Case For Treating Joint Enterprise As A Human Rights Issue
5
Years’ Worth of learning
When JENGbA was first formed in
2010, we wrongly assumed our campaign was only relevant to the Criminal Justice
System of England & Wales Northern Ireland ,
Scotland , Republic of Ireland
– all sentenced to life imprisonment under variants of Joint Enterprise (e.g.
“Art & Part” in Scotland
As JENGbA learned more about
the legal notion of “Common Purpose”, a similar thread emerged – the influence of
English judicial decisions in legal systems which follow the common law or
which treat the decisions of our courts as authoritative. The more we looked at
cases and media reports of crimes involving homicide around the world, the
clearer the picture emerged.
The notion of “Collective Guilt” is repeatedly used to transfer or share
liability between people accused of involvement in serious crime where death
had occurred. We also
became aware of variants of Joint Enterprise
which have similar effects – the Felony Murder Rule used in some parts
of the United States, the Law of Parties used in Texas, Joint Criminal
Enterprise used in Queensland & New South Wales in Australia, even in The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The same process is in
place – “rounding up” the criminal liability of people to that of the most
serious offence, then convicting people for that offence and punishing them for
it.
Fair
Justice -v- Public Interest?
JENGbA is very aware this is
a difficult, complex and highly contentious area of justice. It is fraught with
emotions on all sides and the stakes are high. For some, it is
sophisticated judicial practice where society sees that all who cause unlawful
death pay for their crime together. For others, it carries
inherent unfairness and a high risk of miscarriages of justice in order for the
police and prosecutors to “get a good result”. And some would even argue,
like the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Faulkner, that the issue is not whether
the system leads to people being wrongly convicted, but whether we need a
“draconian law” which allows a jury to convict even a “peripheral member of a
gang which killed”. We strongly disagree with Lord Faulkner.[1]
JENGbA believes that justice
should be applied fairly and consistently, and that individuals should only be
made to account for their own acts rather than be held liable for the
wrongdoing of another. In
the case of Joint Enterprise as it is used in criminal trials in England &
Wales, it is undeniable that the low evidential threshold has led to a growing
number of wrongful convictions and unjust life sentences for murder. And there is no sign this
will change without the intervention of the UK Supreme Court and/or legislation
by Parliament.
What
does JENGbA do?
Our
lobbying and campaigning for Joint Enterprise reform and for those unfairly
convicted to be released or fairly re-tried has included submissions to the
House of Commons Justice Select Committee, lobbying of Members of Parliament,
demonstrations, speeches, using mainstream and social media to get our growing
voices heard, and now in
making representations to the Supreme Court.
We
are at heart a group of ordinary families, friends and supporters of prisoners
serving lengthy sentences for crimes we believe they did not commit. But JENGbA’s campaign is also
supported by politicians, legal professionals & academics, and even by the
Law Society which has consistently called for reform. And the Justice Select
Committee has twice called for urgent changes to the way courts in England
But
is it really a Human Rights Issue?
Should
we care about the way Joint Enterprise is also abused in nations and states
outside the UK Caribbean .
(One particular Jamaican case has a bearing on the pending Supreme
Court’s consideration of Joint Enterprise.) It is also very relevant
that JENGbA has
been short-listed for the Liberty Human Awards 2015 for Campaign of the Year. In particular, Liberty highlighted our “campaigning
to reform the law doctrine of joint enterprise, persuading the Justice
Committee to recommend urgent change.”
We
feel we are getting our message across to highly respected civic and
campaigning organisations that Joint Enterprise is an affront to justice.
And JENGbA will not stop until
we see reform.
