Latest editorial
BRITISH judges have misinterpreted the law on controversial “joint enterprise” murder charges for decades, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a landmark judgement paving the way for hundreds of legal challenges.
A panel of Supreme Court justices, in a historic first sitting with the Privy Council’s judicial committee, concluded that the law on joint enterprise had been wrongly interpreted by criminal trial judges over the past 30 years.
Joint enterprise allows for individuals to be convicted of murder as a secondary party even if they weren’t the main perpetrator in committing the act.
Former judge ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the details and controversy of Lucy Letby’s trial and appeal in the context of famous historical wrongful convictions that prove both the justice system and legal activists make errors
The heroism of the jury who defied prison and starvation conditions secured the absolute right of juries to deliver verdicts based on conscience — a convention which is now under attack, writes MAT COWARD
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the government’s proposals to further limit the right of citizens to trial by jury
