"This case is as simple as black and white"
Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird
JENGbA - JOINT ENTERPRISE: NOT GUILTY by ASSOCIATION
WHO WE ARE: We are a grassroots campaign, run by volunteers. As with all grassroots campaigns the work behind opposing the might of the legal establishment has been an uphill battle. It was a role taken on mainly by women (mothers, sisters, aunties and cousins but also heartbroken dads and uncles) who will not rest while their loved ones are serving mandatory life sentences for crimes committed by others. JENGbA was created by the legal establishment, it was not a campaign that came out of nowhere; it was precisely because the use of joint enterprise was unjust, unfair and discriminatory towards working class and BAME communities that we were forced to form JENGbA From our kitchens and meeting rooms we have focused tirelessly on this campaign.
WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED
Since JENGbA’s official launch in 2010 to address the wrongful convictions of hundreds of innocent people we have campaigned tirelessly to have our voices and the voices of prisoners heard. We have lobbied and cajoled MP’s, policy makers, media commentators, the Justice Select Committee, academics and ultimately the Supreme Court.
R v Jogee In 2016 in the case of R v Jogee (in which JENGbA intervened on the question ‘Does joint enterprise over-criminalise secondary parties?') the Supreme Court and Privy Council (Ruddock v Queen) the Judges decided the law had taken a "wrong turn" in the Hong Kong case of Chan Wing-Siu in 1984. At last the JENGbA Inside (prisoners) and outside (families) campaigners felt vindicated. The law was wrong, the judges had been getting it wrong (homicide is common law) the juries were being misdirected, the use of foresight to infer what a defendants intention had been was wrong. All these wrongs led us to believe we were right! Finally we would get justice for our loved ones!
WHY WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP
JENGbA would not exist if the law had been fair, just and transparent. It is because of bad law and accepted wrong law that we have grown into the campaign we are today. Does the legal establishment and the Court of Appeal really believe we are going to give up on our loved ones just because they can give substantial their interpretation and refuse to set precedent? It is not just the disgrace of mandatory sentences that means we will never give up – but JENGbA has always maintained our campaign is based on love and justice for those most vulnerable in society. That is why this relaunch is imperative and why a full Inquiry into Joint Enterprise convictions since Chan Wing Siu is a complete necessity if we are to restore any faith back in to the Criminal Justice System.
