Convicted of a murder they didn't commit

[cheesyboy]

Three guys have been convicted of the murder of their fellow gangmember, who was, the court accepted, killed by a rival gang.

Men jailed for murder of friend killed by rival gang in shootout

Jurors heard they fired knowing rivals would shoot back, in what is thought to be a landmark case.

www.bbc.co.uk

Some sort of Joint Enterprise law.

Quite clearly, these guys should go to jail. But surely it should be for the guns and the intent, rather than a murder that was at someone else's hand?!

Horrible law, this.

 

[cheesyboy]

They went to a gun fight and people died. Sounds like they were going to murder someone.

Well exactly: why weren't they convicted of that?

 

[cheesyboy]

As Dis86 said, they directly contributed to it. Either way, gang people are in jail, that's only a good thing, right?

I would think that the same result from the more equitable method of convicting for things they actually did would be better in principle.

 

[cheesyboy]

They 'actually did this' though, the prosecution would have got nowhere if the case didn't meet the fundamental requirements for murder

That would be the "horrible law, this" bit of the OP.

It's interesting that so many responses are happy with this because it's a good result (these guys absolutely should be jailed), with so little concern for the way the result was achieved.

 

[cheesyboy]

strange law though if you're with a mate and you slap a cop who then tazers your mate and he dies do you get charged with murder? if a butterfly in the rainforest flaps it's wing and your nan has a heart attack should we kill it with fire?

In America, their Felony Murder law, which is similar to Joint Enterprise here (particularly this case), can see accomplices of people killed by cops as being guilty of murder.

Here's an article where police shot a guy in the back as he was running away and the guys in the car with him are charged with murder:

A Police Officer Killed Jacob Harris, But His Unarmed Friends Were Charged With His Murder

A little-known legal theory allows prosecutors to file murder charges against people who are unarmed or not even at the scene when police officers kill somebody.

www.buzzfeednews.com

 

[cheesyboy]

This joint enterprise law has been around for ages and is quite often completely nutty but in this case I have less than 0 sympathy.

I don't think sympathy is due here at all. But I do think we can still question such a law.