Murder convictions in Moss Side ‘joint enterprise’ case referred to court of appeal | Manchester

The murder convictions of three black teenagers were sent back to the appeals court in 2017, following a controversial investigation conducted under the “joint enterprise” legal doctrine.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said on Wednesday that new evidence presented on behalf of Durrell Goodall, Reano Walters and Trey Wilson, who were aged 20, 19 and 19 respectively when they were convicted, undermines the prosecution’s claim that they were gang members.

The CCRC is still considering a similar application from a fourth man, Nathaniel Williams, who was 17 when he was convicted of murder for the same incident.

The four were tried in 2016 following the murder of 18-year-old Abdulwahab Hafidah in Moss Side’s Manchester city centre. The fatal stabbing was carried out by 19-year-old Devonte Cantrill, but seven defendants were found guilty of murder and four of involuntary manslaughter under the “joint enterprise” law.

In their application to the CCRC in 2023, the men’s lawyers argued that the “gang narrative” put forward at the hearing was based on racist stereotypes of black boys and young men and that the convictions were due to “institutional racism” by the police, prosecution and judge.

Greater Manchester police (GMP) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) presented a rap music video and selected images from the defendants’ mobile phones as evidence that the defendants were members of a gang called Active Only, or AO. Judge Sir Peter Openshaw instructed the jury that if the rap video was on the defendant’s mobile phone, “membership or affiliation” with the gang could be inferred.

The joint enterprise makes all participants in a violent incident equally culpable, no matter how minor their individual actions, if they are found to have knowingly “encouraged and aided” a person to commit the most serious violence. Accusing individuals involved in a disorderly incident of being gang members can be crucial to establishing a joint enterprise charge, as it alleges that they all had a common goal.

A number of reviews and academic studies have found that black boys and young men are disproportionately portrayed as gang members and subject to joint enterprise investigations.

The Moss Side defendants were accused of being members of the AO and the mass murder of Hafidah because she was a member of a rival gang that had entered their territory. The rap video, featuring some of the defendants, was shown at the hearing and was referred to as a “gang video” by Openshaw.

In 2021, the Guardian reported that the video was recorded at a local publicly-funded youth center and that GMP supports initiatives there. Young people, including some of the defendants, participated in activities that included encouraging them to make rap music as a constructive activity.

It was claimed that no criminal activity such as drug dealing was carried out by the AO gang, five of the 11 prisoners had no criminal record and Openshaw said the minor convictions of the other three teenagers were not relevant. Most of them were studying at university and had good character credentials. The men and their families have always maintained that they were not members of a gang and did not intend for Hafidah to be killed.

The application, made to the CCRC in 2023 by solicitors Keir Monteith KC and Darrell Ennis-Gayle of Hodge Jones and Allen, argued that “there is no violent criminal gang called the AO” and that the convictions were a “gross miscarriage of justice” influenced by institutional racism.

Lucy Powell, Labor deputy leader and MP for the constituency where Hafidah was killed, supported the application to the CCRC. He repeatedly He criticized the joint venture investigationgang narratives, he says, “are more effectively deployed against young black men in places like Moss Side, where underlying biases and prejudices come into play.”

The CCRC said the new evidence and arguments presented on behalf of Goodall, Walters and Wilson “undermine the ‘gang narrative’ on which the prosecution relied at the trial”. “There is a real possibility that the appellate court will find that the new evidence materially undermines the prosecution,” the statement said.

Dame Vera Baird KC, chair of the CCRC, said: “This guidance underlines the need for safeguards to protect defendants against the risk of injustice arising from an easily adopted gang narrative based on inappropriate labelling.

“It is possible that there are other cases that could benefit from guidance on this issue, where there may be fears that stereotypes may be wrongly presented as evidence.”

Monteith said he hopes the appeals court will reach a decision by the end of next year at the latest.

“The use of joint enterprise laws and gang narratives by the CPS has led to numerous racial justice miscarriages,” he said, arguing the system needed urgent reform. “These prosecution tactics predominantly target young black men and reinforce harmful racist stereotypes that undermine trust in our justice system for racialized and marginalized communities.”

Ennis-Gayle said: “The CCRC decision reflects what we have been arguing for five years: that our customers are condemned because of the color of their skin.”

A CPS spokesman said: “We note today’s CCRC guidance and will carefully consider our next steps.”

Durrell’s mother, Mary Goodall, said of the CCRC referral: “This is fantastic news that we have been waiting for a long time. We still have a long way to go before our children get justice and we can get them home, but this is a step in the right direction: they are innocent.”