A barrister who has campaigned against racial stereotypes being deployed in trials has praised a decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to refer three joint enterprise murder convictions to the Court of Appeal.
Garden Court Chambers' Keir Monteith KC represents Durrell Goodall, Reano Walters and Trey Wilson, whose applications for referral were submitted in May 2023. Announcing its decision this week, the CCRC said a review of new evidence and arguments undermined the ‘gang narrative’ relied on by the prosecution at trial.
Goodall, Walters and Wilson, who were 20, 19 and 19 when they were convicted, were jailed in August 2017 for the joint enterprise murder of Abdul Hafidah, 18, in Manchester in May 2016. In total, 13 men were charged with the murder and tried at two separate trials.
The CCRC said submissions attacked testimony from a police officer about gang membership, asserted that many of the images relied on by the prosecution did not denote gang affiliation and criticised the judge’s direction to the jury on gang narrative.
CCRC chair Dame Vera Baird KC said the referral highlighted the need for safeguards ‘to protect defendants against the risk of unfairness from a too readily adopted gang narrative, based on inappropriate labelling’. Other cases could benefit from guidance ‘where the fear may be that stereotypes can be wrongly introduced as evidence’.
Monteith is a member of ‘Art Not Evidence’, a campaign group advocating for a restriction on the use of art, particularly rap music, as evidence in criminal trials. Welcoming the CCRC's announcement, he said joint enterprise laws and gang narratives 'are overwhelmingly targeted at young black men and reinforce harmful racial stereotypes that undermine trust in our justice system for racialised and marginalised communities'.
Hodge Jones & Allen solicitor Darrell Ennis-Gayle, who represents Goodall and Walters, said the CCRC’s referral was a ‘monumental moment of vindication’ for his clients and their families, ‘who have fought tirelessly to shine a piercing light on what we believe is a grave miscarriage of justice, rooted in racism’.
A CPS spokesperson said it will 'carefully consider our next steps’.
