Smith, James Alexander

James Alexander Smith was convicted in March 2013 of murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. Mr Smith received a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years.

His case was the CCRC’s first referral of a “joint enterprise” case to the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.

Joint enterprise relates to secondary offenders to a crime being prosecuted as if they were the main offender.

Under the joint enterprise law, James Alexander Smith and his co-accused Peter Greer were convicted at Downpatrick Crown Court in March 2013 of the murder of Duncan Morrison, the attempted murder of Stephen Ritchie and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life in May 2011. 

In 2016, in the case of R v Jogee [2016] UKSC 8 (Jogee), the United Kingdom Supreme Court made significant changes to the law in relation to secondary parties in “joint enterprise” cases. 

The Supreme Court said that the law had been misinterpreted and that a person should only be found guilty of a joint enterprise offence if they intended to assist or encourage the person who committed it. 

However, the courts had confirmed that they would only quash convictions where juries were directed in line with the “old” (i.e. pre-Jogee) law where not doing so would result in a “substantial injustice”.  

As Mr Smith’s trial was in 2013, the directions to the jury included references to the law as it stood pre-Jogee. Having carefully analysed the case, the CCRC decided that there was a real possibility that had the jury been directed in line with the law as now understood, this would have made a difference to the outcome of the trial. 

The CCRC therefore concluded that there was a real possibility that the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal would decide that it would be a substantial injustice for Mr Smith’s convictions to stand.  

The CCRC referred the conviction in August 2022.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in December 2023.