Where no majority of the Court of Criminal Appeal agrees on the disposition of an appeal, the Court may adopt the 'least unsatisfactory outcome' approach, ordering the result favoured by two of three judges even though they reach that result on different grounds. The case also illustrates the limits of the unreasonable verdict ground where a conviction rests on joint criminal enterprise and all co-accused are acquitted: the acquittal of co-accused does not necessarily render the remaining conviction unreasonable, but the Crown must be able to 'close the class' of persons with whom the appellant was on a joint enterprise. The question whether provocation should be left to the jury where the accused was attacked shortly before the fatal assault, in the context of rival gang violence, was left unresolved as between the three judges.
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