Manchester man released from prison after joint enterprise murder conviction is overturned
John Crilly was jailed in 2005 under a law which claimed he should have predicted his co-accused would attack a victim.
A Manchester man has been released from prison after becoming the first person to have a joint enterprise murder conviction overturned.
Joint enterprise applies to gang-related cases, and can see defendants charged with murder, even if they did not physically attack the victim, but could have forseen the violence from a co-defedendent.
In 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the law had been wrongly interpreted for more than 30 years.
John Crilly was given a life sentence for murder and robbery in 2005, after he and David Flynn broke into the home of 71-year-old Augustine Maduemezia in Miles Platting.
Mr Maduemezia died after being punched in the face by Flynn.
The joint enterprise law has faced harsh criticism from the families of people sentenced using it. Judges ruled ‘foresight’ could not be treated as a sufficient test of intent to kill.
While in prison, Crilly worked to get a law degree and is now working with legal experts to change how the joint enterprise rule is used in court:
“I take full responsibility for going into that house. We went in to burgle, I was on drugs, I was lost. I’ve got my victim’s family in mind all the time – I don’t want to be doing this but the law is just wrong. It just baffles me how you can use foresight to convict someone.”
John has begun working with JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association), the group campaigning to overturn a number of joint enterprise convictions.
Janet Cunliffe’s son, Jordan, is currently behind bars for the murder of Gary Newlove in 2007.
“It’s so unfair that it has to happen to hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands of people before anybody takes any notice. Miscarriages of justice are now a dirty word, nobody wants to believe that we could possibly do that because we’re supposed to have a justice system that’s the envy of the world.
“People a desperate, we’ve got people serving 34 years in prison, they’ve already been in there a decade. What happened to my son was completely wrong and we won’t rest until he’s fully acquitted.”