Billy Joe Friend
Billy Joe Friend was convicted of murder. The killing had been committed by his older brother, who Billy had called in to sort out an altercation between friends. The case against him rested on the doctrine of joint enterprise and there were tricky questions about his intent in fetching his brother and his foresight of violence. Although Billy had a mental age of 8, the judge rejected the application that no adverse inference should be drawn if he decided not to give evidence. On appeal, new evidence showed that Billy suffered from ADHD which supported the conclusion that he would have been unable to follow trial proceedings and the jury should not have drawn adverse inference from his silence. His conviction was quashed and judges agreed that a retrial was not in the public interest.
View Press (www.kentonline.co.uk)
< Back to Case Search < Back to Overview Graph- Offence: Murder
- Jurisdiction: England & Wales
- County: Kent
- Ethnicity: White
- Gender: M
- Years in prison: 8
- Offence convicted of: Murder
- Year of crime: 1995
- Year of initial conviction: 1996
- Year conviction was overturned: 2004
- Age when imprisoned: 15
- CCRC Referral: Y
- Tried with others: Y
- Link to full case: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2004/2661.html
- Type of fresh evidence at appeal: Other
- Compensation: Yes
- Link to compensation: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/robber-jailed-13-years-after-murder-conviction-quashed-190188/
- Crown argued case at CofA: Yes
- Retrial: No
- Previous appeals: Unsuccessful appeal in 1993