Philip Rule KC instructed in Privy Council joint enterprise appeal from the Bahamas

No5’s Philip Rule KC has been instructed on behalf of the Appellant in a case challenging conviction for murder before the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Philip is instructed by Killian Moran of the Death Penalty Project, London, and is leading Ryszard Humes of Munroe & Associates, The Bahamas.

Permission to appeal against conviction has been granted to the Appellant, Anton Bastian, by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (case JCPC 2018/0108).

The appeal concerns a conviction for murder on the basis of joint enterprise and will determine the proper approach to joint enterprise in The Bahamas.

The Appellant was said to have been part of a group involved in stealing the handbags of two female tourists, in the course of which one of the group shot and fatally killed the deceased. It was common ground that the Appellant did not shoot the victim.

The Privy Council shall be asked to consider in particular the adequacy of directions, given to the jury, for a joint enterprise, and whether those legal directions accorded with the law governing the principle of joint enterprise/secondary liability as explained in R v Jogee and Ruddock v The Queen [2016] UKPC 7; [2017] AC 387 and Farquharson v Regina [1973] A.C. 786.

In addition, the Appellant raises whether issues of fact were left to the jury, and the obvious alternative counts of robbery and manslaughter not being left, and whether the trial judge failed to adequately differentiate between each defendant’s case in summing-up the case.

A hearing is anticipated in 2024.