A code,unspoken fear and the life changing reality.

As a defence barrister appearing in many murder trials involving predominantly young men, I have witnessed that unspoken fear by the defendant in almost every case. Here is a snapshot of the realities of a murder trial involving a young defendant that I represented.

On the streets, there is a code. But the court room also has a code: a strict one with few positives for a young person charged with murder. How many times have we watched the news about another senseless murder, followed months later by the outcome of the court case? But what really happens behind the scenes of a criminal trial? What are the realities of this high stakes ‘game of Russian roulette’ where very few are acquitted and where there are ultimately no winners?

The misplaced swagger and bravado played out on the streets of our urban towns and cities by many young men and on social media, sometimes innocently being in or joining the crowd, is the start of their own undoing. The debate over the influence of Grime music and ‘gangsta rap’ continues but from the court’s  perspective, the seed of joint enterprise has already been sown.

News of a fatal stabbing travels fast on social media. The relief of being wrongly accused and the belief that “man can bust the case” is not the reality for many.

Being charged with murder along with your ‘bredren’ may be fun at the beginning. The plan is to stick to the same story and see how things play out. That is a code used on the streets by the so- called ‘family’, but even blood related families suffer from disloyalty and breaks in the ranks.

The setting in any Crown Court is formal as one would expect, but the Old Bailey with all its splendour and history is an imposing place even for the lawyers who have appeared there many times. Just to think Ruth Ellis was sent to the gallows from this very building only 64 years ago!

Jury Empanelment (Day 1) is the day he get to meet 12 strangers who are going to hold his future and destiny in their hands. The ‘game’ of Russian roulette has begun.

That loudness, the noise of the streets, is replaced with the drama and intensity of the court room. On the street, he may have a reputation but when that notoriety in the form of his criminal past is used to punch another hole in his defence of “I was there but I didn’t know my friend had a knife” or “it wasn’t me, I didn’t see who did it”; it doesn’t seem so great. He quickly begins to wish he was not in that YouTube video where ‘friends’ were singing about “shanks” and “boring” someone.  

The cells in the ‘bowels’ of this majestic building are a hive of activity. Young men, all facing murder charges, file off to their various courtrooms handcuffed to their respective guards. The unspoken fear is palpable as each young man contemplates how they are going to perform under the intense pressure of questions from the prosecution barrister with the close scrutiny of the jury and Judge.

The nerves began to set in when he has to speak in his own defence.  Before entering the witness box, he asks me whether he should change into a suit to give his version of events more credibility in the eyes of the jury.

In the moments before going into court, I look at my clients hands.  No, he’s not suffering from early stage Parkinson’s disease: fear has gripped him, the ‘game’ is now very real. His eyes are open wider than usual. In the witness box, barely struggling to say his full name in a voice loud enough to be heard across the court room by the jury, he is reminded by the Judge to speak up.

The early part where the questions from me are easy enough to navigate shows signs of hope but the barrage of questions by the prosecution barrister,  like a boxer taking too many shots to the head, leave him bamboozled and tongue tied,  unsure about the account rehearsed so many times in the confines of his prison cell. He tells me after “These lawyers have a way of talking and getting you to agree with them.” How he wished that he had paid more attention in those English language lessons or read more of those books on the recommended reading list! Street language is definitely out of place here.

Now the jury have to consider the role he played. One stab wound to the heart but who among his bredren did it? Was it him? Was he encouraging his friend? Did he know his friend had a knife and would use it? The moment the jury go into retirement after being directed on the law by the Judge is the start of that gut- wrenching fear.

Every court announcement is potentially the moment, when his life could be changed forever. Eventually an announcement is the cue for us all to return to court. For weeks, family members of the accused have sat in the public gallery listening to every word.  The deceased’s family to have sat inside the court room with raw pain visible but the need for justice the dominant emotion. As the jury shuffle into court, the atmosphere is thick with the anticipation of a verdict. Reporters pen and computers at the ready.

None of the defendants can bear to look at the others or their families and take what comfort they can from the floor beneath their gaze. Finally, it dawns on them that the words about to be uttered by the jury foreperson could change the rest of their lives forever and those of their ‘real’ family.

My client’s decision to follow his ‘bredren’ could now cost him the best years of his life. “Guilty” utters the foreman whilst looking straight ahead, with no desire to look at the young man’s face who actually stabbed the victim.

There is a gut-wrenching cry from the public gallery from his mother: she will not see her son at home again until he is a middle aged man if he survives the prison experience. What will people say in her community? Will her other children be safe? Who will collect his younger sister from school when she is at work?

The harsh reality as told by many young men is that the so called ‘friends’ or was it ‘bredren’, disappear, “man don’t have time to be visiting no- one in jail  for the next 15 years fam” are the words proclaimed by those who swore they  had their backs. That girlfriend who promised to wait soon loses interest and the attention from his closest friend proves irresistible after just 1 month of loyal visits to Her Majesty’s prison.

That unfulfilled potential placed on pause for the next 15 years at least. The teenager lost to the system which will release him as a man in his mid-thirties to a community that has moved on and a family he does not know or recognize.

My client is relieved: his focus back on himself and not even an acknowledgement of his friend’s plight. He has just been handed his life back. I tell him to hit the reset button of his life and that at the age of just 19, it’s not too late to start being the person he might have been. He is one of the lucky ones: not captured by his past indiscretions, joint enterprise and a poor performance in the witness  box after being bamboozled by the eloquence of the prosecutor.

For the deceased’s family, it is not a victory. It might not even feel like justice from a system that promises a fair trial.

The brutal fact is that there are no winners in these cases; neither family nor the convicted person will be the same again and the deceased will never know that justice for their pointless murder.

The reality is the encounter of the court room on a charge of murder is a daunting one for a young person ill-equipped to deal with the emotion and legal complexities of a trial in an intimidating forum. Jurors are told to be impartial and to reach verdicts according to the evidence. The public’s frustration with this cycle of mindless killings and their own exposure to this discreet element of youth culture may just be a gamble too far for a young defendant’s future and unfulfilled destiny.

This is the naked reality of knife crime, a young defendant for whom it was too late and the ‘game’ lost will have the next 15 years to think about the choices he made.