05 February 2024 , 17:29
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A man who was jailed for murder even though he was 200 yards away when the fatal stabbing happened has called for the law to be changed.
Joseph Appiah, known as Cleeshay, was just 16 when he was found to have killed another teenager and spent 12 years behind bars. He was convicted under controversial joint enterprise laws, which meant that although he didn't stab the victim to death himself, he was found as culpable as the teen who did.
Campaigners argue the law is being wrongly used, with MPs last week hearing it branded "a miscarriage of justice on the same scale as the Post Office Horizon scandal". Figures show joint enterprise is disproportionately used against black suspects.
More than 1,000 suspects were convicted of murder or manslaughter under joint enterprise between 2010 and 2020. High-profile cases included David Norris and Gary Dobson, who were found guilty of the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Cleeshay was 15 when the murder happened (Jengba)Cleeshay was part of a group that clashed with rival schoolboys when he was 15, and the violence resulted in the tragic stabbing of a 16-year-old in May 2010. Now 29, he feels a burning sense of injustice, saying he was stunned to be charged with murder, having not seen the fatal stabbing happen.
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He told The Mirror: "I didn't see it, I didn't know what happened and I can account for where I was, I could prove it. I always thought, well, you know, I didn't do it, so when all the evidence comes out, eventually they will see the light, but that's not how it went."
Cleeshay, who now campaigns with pressure group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA), admitted he'd gone along expecting a fight, but said he didn't realise it would escalate. He said there was a confrontation after one of his friends was humiliated in a playground scrap.
He said he didn't expect to face a murder charge after being arrested in connection with the stabbing. Cleeshay said: "It's crazy what they're doing, they trial us as if we're adults, like they expect us to foresee this, they expect us to leave when this happens. When you're a child, you just go with the flow. You're following your friends even if you're scared like I was scared, if I run off or if I leave now I'm gonna be like the coward. There's a lot of pressure being a young boy from London."
Cleeshay's case was featured in a BBC documentary, Guilty By Association, back in 2014. It highlighted the campaign to overturn his conviction and that of fellow defendant Edward Conteh, who was 16. Conteh was convicted of manslaughter despite the pair being a long way behind their friends when the stabbing happened.
Back in 2016, the Supreme Court said that joint enterprise had been wrongly applied in courts for at least three decades. Judges said a person should only be guilty if they intended to encourage or assist the person who committed the offence - which Cleeshay said wasn't the case for him.
Labour MP Kim Johnson has called for the law to change (Parliament TV)On Friday Ms Johnson told MPs that the use of joint enterprise law in cases like Cleeshay's was similar to the Post Office injustice and said it had "destroyed many lives". He watched on as the Commons heard MPs across the House have serious concerns about how the law is being used.
Ms Johnson's Private Member's Bill says joint enterprise should only apply if someone has made a "significant contribution" to the crime. She said: "Joint enterprise is currently wielded as a blunt instrument by the courts, allowing people who have not made a significant contribution to a murder to receive a mandatory life sentence."
Cleeshay, who has given talks in schools about his experience, said he still hasn't given up hope of his murder conviction being overturned one day. He said: "It would be amazing just to clear my name because I've had to carry that title everywhere I went. In prison I was always seen as a murderer, people from my school, my college talking about me, it would just be nice for me and myself just to finally just clear my name."
Responding to Ms Johnson's Bill, Justice Minister Gareth Bacon admitted it is an "extremely complex" area of law, but said he would not support Ms Johnson's suggested change. He told MPs the threshold for anyone to be prosecuted and found guilty under the joint enterprise principle is "very high", adding: "They must intend to assist or encourage the commission of the crime and therefore must know of the existing fact necessary to make it criminal.
"If the crime requires the principal to have a particular intent then the secondary must intend to assist or encourage the principal to act with that intent."
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A study by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies in 2022 found that just over 1,000 secondary suspects were convicted of murder or manslaughter in the ten years to 2020. Almost half of those convicted of murder in these cases were Black and minority ethnic communities.
Ms Johnson said: "I was deeply disappointed that the Government missed this opportunity to address the joint enterprise miscarriage of justice. It was clear from the debate that there is cross-party consensus that joint enterprise is flawed."
She added: "Today is just a further step in a long campaign and I will continue to fight alongside the JENGbA families until we achieve justice."