Abused women being unfairly convicted of murder

Researchers have warned that abused women are being unfairly convicted of murder and manslaughter under joint enterprise laws.

Currently there are at least 109 females serving long sentences for joint enterprise crimes. Research suggests they have been wrongly convicted using the controversial secondary liability law which allows an individual to be jointly convicted of a crime committed by another if they foresaw that the other person was likely to commit it.

According to the report by Manchester Metropolitan University almost half of the women disclosed that they were experiencing domestic violence at the time of the offence. In 87 per cent of cases the perpetrator of the abuse was a co-defendant but their histories of abuse and trauma were generally ignored or else used against them at trial.

The study also revealed that the women were often marginal to the event. In half of the cases the women were not even present at the scene, 90 per cent engaged in no violence at all, and in no case did any use a deadly weapon, however they were convicted and punished in the same way. In some cases more harshly than the person who struck the fatal blow.

Senior criminology lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and the report's co-author, Becky Clarke, said: "The experiences of the women examined in our report paint a harrowing picture of injustice which is currently sanctioned by our legal system. These women are wrongly convicted."

Speaking to a national broadsheet, the Director of the Centre for Women's Justice, Harriet Wistrich, said: "It is further evidence to signal the need for a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system, and the inability of the state to take into account the experience of domestic violence. It is right that those who assist or encourage someone to commit a violent crime are also prosecuted and punished." 

E&K Solicitors

Rusholme