[WOMBAI]

Originally Posted by Shasown

Simply because the police have arrested and charged a large number of people with murder does not mean it was that number against the victim and his friends, under Joint Enterprise anyone in the assembly who did not overtly try to prevent the crime at the time of it being committed can be charged with murder too. Regradless of who actually stabbed the victim.

Its an old legal doctrine, over 300 years old that is still on the statute books, but it has been brought back into use to help fight gang violence. Basically if you are a member of the group and another member of the group commits a crime, you can be held responsible for that crime even though you didnt intend to commit it. Unless it can be proven that you tried to stop it.

In this case if the assembly consisted of a number of gangs and they were there for a fight, which resulted in someone dying, they could all be charged and even convicted of murder, especially if the person(s) who committed the murder cannot be identified.

Well I guess the idea of bringing it back includes encouraging the innocent to name the guilty - rather than be convicted of something they didn't do!