Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Drive-by murder convict granted right to appeal
A MAN jailed for the drive-by execution of a rapper has won the right to fight his conviction in a rare legal case.
Kyrone Daley was found guilty under the joint enterprise law of the murder of Umar Tufail in 2012.
He was driving the car used to ambush the 25-year-old musician and was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison. Passenger Sanchez Thomas, who shot Umar in the head, was told he must serve at least 25 years.
Under joint enterprise law accomplices are treated the same as killers.
But in 2016, the Supreme Court ruled the law had been wrongly interpreted and Daley’s case was referred by the Criminal
Cases Review Commission.
It said: “The referral is based on the change in the law. It is up to the Court of
Appeal to decide whether the conviction is unsafe.”
Daley and Thomas were both 19 at the time of the murder.
The Old Bailey heard the pair mistook tragic Umar for his younger brother Amir, who had previously stabbed Thomas in the leg.
Innocent Umar was blasted at almost point blank range as he sat in his car outside his home in South Norwood, South East London. He died the following day.
Daley, now 25, argues he did not know Thomas was going to shoot the victim.
The Court of Appeal can order the conviction to be overturned.
Joint enterprise law was used to convict Gary Dobson and David Norris for the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence. It has also helped convict at least 500 others.