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Encyclopedia > Manslaughter in English law
Criminal law in English law
Part of the common law series
Classes of crimes
Summary  · Indictable
Hybrid offence  · Regulatory offences
Lesser included offence
Elements of crimes
Actus reus  · Causation
Mens rea  · Intention (general)
Intention in English law  · Recklessness
Criminal negligence  · Corporate liability
Vicarious liability  · Strict liability
Omission  · Concurrence
Ignorantia juris non excusat
Inchoate offences
Incitement  · Conspiracy
Accessory  · Attempt
Common purpose
Defences
Consent  · Diminished responsibility
Duress
M'Naghten Rules  · Necessity
Provocation
Self-defence
Crimes against the person
Common assault  · Battery
Actual bodily harm  · Grievous bodily harm
Offences Against The Person Act 1861
Murder  · Manslaughter
Corporate manslaughter  · Harassment
Public order and crimes against property
Criminal Damage Act 1971
Public nuisance
Crimes of dishonesty
Theft Act 1968  · Theft  · Dishonesty
Robbery  · Burglary  · TWOC
Deception  · Deception offences
Blackmail  · Handling
Theft Act 1978  · Forgery
Computer crime
Sexual crimes
Rape  · Kidnapping
Crimes against justice
Bribery  · Perjury
Obstruction of justice
See also Criminal Procedure
Criminal Defences
Other areas of the common law
Contract law  · Tort law  · Property law
Wills and trusts  · Evidence
For a discussion of the law in other countries, see manslaughter

In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder with the the law differentiating between levels of fault based on the mens rea (Latin for a "guilty mind"). Manslaughter may be either: Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ... English law is a formal term of art that describes the law for the time being in force in England and Wales. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... In many common law jurisdictions (e. ... A hybrid offence or dual offence are the special offences in Canadian criminal law where the prosecution may choose whether to proceed with a summary offence or an indictment. ... Regulatory offences are a class of crime in which the standard for proving culpability has been lowered so as not to require any fault elements. ... A lesser included offense, in criminal law, is a crime for which all of the elements necessary to impose liability are also elements found in a more serious crime. ... Actus reus is the action (or inaction, in the case of criminal negligence and similar crimes which are sometimes called acts of omission) which, in combination with the mens rea (guilty mind), produces criminal liability in common law based criminal law jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom. ... In law, causation is the name given to the process of testing whether defendants should be fixed with liability for the outcome to their acts and omissions that injure or cause loss to others. ... The mens rea is the Latin term for guilty mind used in the criminal law. ... In the criminal law, intention is one of the three general classes of mens rea necessary to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability crime. ... In English criminal law, intention is one of the types of mens rea (Latin for guilty mind) that, when accompanied by an actus reus (Latin for guilty act) constitutes a crime. ... In the criminal law, recklessness (sometimes also termed wilful blindness) is one of the three possible classes of mental state constituting mens rea (the Latin for guilty mind). To commit an offence of ordinary as opposed to strict liability, the prosecution must be able to prove both an actus reus... Criminal negligence, in the realm of criminal common law, is a legal term of art for a state of mind which is careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind, or reckless; it is the mens rea part of a crime which, if occurring simultaneously with the actus reus, gives rise to criminal... In the criminal law, corporate liability is an aspect of criminal vicarious liability and determines the extent to which a corporation as a fictitious person can be convicted of offences committed by the natural persons it employs. ... The legal principle of vicarious liability applies to hold one person liable for the actions of another when engaged in some form of joint or collective activity. ... In criminal law, strict liability is liability where mens rea (Latin for guilty mind) does not have to be proved in relation to one or more elements comprising the actus reus (Latin for guilty act) although intention, recklessness or knowledge may be required in relation to other elements of the... In the criminal law, an omission or failure to act will only constitute an actus reus (Latin for guilty act) and give rise to liability when the law imposes a duty to act and the defendant is in breach of that duty. ... Concurrence or Simultaneity is a legal term, from Western jurisprudence, referring to the simultaneous occurrence of actus reus (bad action) and mens rea (bad mind), which must be present for a crime to have occurred; except in crimes of strict liability. ... Ignorantia juris non excusat or Ignorantia legis neminem excusat (Latin for ignorance of the law is no excuse) is a legal doctrine holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape punishment for violating the law merely because they were unaware of the law; that is... An inchoate offense is a crime. ... In English criminal law, incitement is an anticipatory common law offence and is the act of persuading, encouraging, instigating, pressuring, or threatening so as to cause another to commit a crime. ... In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, so a natural person identified with the mind of a legal entity cannot conspire with the company alone. ... An accessory is a person who assists in or conceals a crime, but does not actually participate in the commission of the crime. ... The crime of attempt occurs when a person does an act amounting to more than mere preparation for a criminal offense, with specific intent to commit a crime, if that act tends but fails to effect the commission of the offense intended. ... In criminal law, the doctrine of common purpose, common design or joint enterprise refers to the situation where two or more people embark on a project with a common purpose that results in the commission of a crime. ... In the criminal law, consent may be an excuse and prevent the defendant from incurring liability for what was done. ... For the law in other criminal jurisdictions, see diminished responsibility. ... For a general discussion of the principles, see duress In English law, duress is a defence which allows a limited excuse in favour of those who commit crimes because they are forced or compelled to do so against their will by the threats of another. ... The MNaghten Rules are used to establish insanity as an excuse to potential criminal liability, but the definitional criteria establish insanity in the legal and not the psychological sense. ... For the discussion on general principles and policy, see necessity In English law, the defence of necessity recognises that there may be situations of such an overwhelming urgency, that a person must be allowed to respond by breaking the law. ... For an description of the general principles, see provocation (legal). ... In English criminal law, the defence of self-defence provides for the right of people to act in a manner that would be otherwise unlawful in order to preserve the physical integrity of themselves or others or to prevent any crime. ... In criminal law, a common assault is a crime when the defendant either puts another in fear of injury or actually commits a battery. ... In many common law jurisdictions, the crime of battery involves an injury or other contact upon the person of another in a manner likely to cause bodily harm. ... It has been suggested that Assault causing bodily harm be merged into this article or section. ... Grievous bodily harm or GBH is a type of assault resulting in, for example, broken bones or cuts to the skin. ... This page is a candidate to be copied to Wikisource. ... Corporate manslaughter is a term in English law for an act of homicide committed by a company. ... Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. ... Under English law, the Criminal Damage Act 1971 is the main statute covering damage to property. ... Nuisance is a common law tort. ... The Theft Act 1968 (1968 c. ... Thief redirects to here. ... Dishonesty is a term which in common usage may be defined as the act of being dishonest; to act without honesty; a lack of probity, to cheat, lying or being deliberately deceptive; lacking in integrity; to be knavish, perfidious, corrupt or treacherous; charlatanism or quackery. ... TWOC is an acronym standing for Taken Without Owners Consent. ... For the purposes of English law, deception is defined in s15(4) Theft Act 1968 and applies to the deception offences in the Theft Act 1968, and to the Theft Act 1978 and the Theft (Amendment) Act 1996. ... In English law, the main deception offences are defined in the Theft Act 1968 (TA68), the Theft Act 1978 and the Theft (Amendment) Act 1996. ... Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand is met. ... A cars handling is a description of the way the car performs, particularly during cornering. ... The Theft Act 1978 supplemented to earlier Theft Act 1968. ... Forgery is the process of making or adapting objects or documents (see false document), with the intention to deceive. ... Computer crime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Bribery is a crime defined by Blacks Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions as an official or other person in discharge of a public or legal duty. ... Perjury is lying or making verifiably false statements under oath or affirmation in a court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing. ... Obstruction of justice, in a common law state, refers to the crime of offering interference of any sort to the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other (usually government) officials. ... Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated the criminal law. ... A contract is any promise or set of promises made by one party to another for the breach of which the law provides a remedy. ... In the common law, a tort is a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy. ... Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land as distinct from personal or movable possessions) and in personal property, within the common law legal system. ... In the common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the testator) regulates the rights of others over his property or family after death. ... The law of trusts and estates is generally considered the body of law which governs the management of personal affairs and the disposition of property of an individual in anticipation and the event of such persons incapacity or death, also known as the law of successions in civil law. ... The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (eg. ... English law is a formal term of art that describes the law for the time being in force in England and Wales. ... Homicide is the killing of another human being by one or more others. ... The mens rea is the Latin term for guilty mind used in the criminal law. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

  • Voluntary where the accused intentionally kills another but is not liable for murder either because he or she falls within the scope of a mitigatory defence such as provocation or diminished responsibility that will reduce what would otherwise have been murder to manslaughter, or because he or she was the survivor of a suicide pact (s2(4) Homicide Act 1957).
  • Involuntary which occurs when the accused did not intend to cause death or serious injury but caused the death of another through recklessness or criminal negligence. For these purposes, recklessness is defined as a wanton disregard for the dangers of a particular situation. An example of this would be dropping a brick off a bridge, which lands on a person's head, killing him. Since the intent is not to kill the victim, but simply to drop the brick, the mens rea required for murder does not exist because the act is not aimed at any one person. But if in dropping the brick, there is a good chance of injuring someone, the person who drops it will be reckless. This form of manslaughter is usually dealt with as an "unlawful act manslaughter".

In England and Wales, the usual practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option (see lesser included offense). The jury then decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of either murder or manslaughter. In most litigation under the common law adversarial system the defendant, perhaps with the assistance of counsel, may allege or present defenses (or defences) in order to avoid liability, civil or criminal. ... For an description of the general principles, see provocation (legal). ... In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were diminished or impaired. ... A suicide pact describes the suicides of two or more individuals in an agreed-upon plan. ... Under English law, the Homicide Act 1957 was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in limited circumstances) and by introducing the partial defences of provocation, diminished responsibility and suicide pact. ... In the criminal law, recklessness (sometimes also termed wilful blindness) is one of the three possible classes of mental state constituting mens rea (the Latin for guilty mind). To commit an offence of ordinary as opposed to strict liability, the prosecution must be able to prove both an actus reus... Criminal negligence, in the realm of criminal common law, is a legal term of art for a state of mind which is careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind, or reckless; it is the mens rea part of a crime which, if occurring simultaneously with the actus reus, gives rise to criminal... A judge or justice is an official who presides over a court. ... A lesser included offense, in criminal law, is a crime for which all of the elements necessary to impose liability are also elements found in a more serious crime. ... A jury is a sworn body of persons convened to render a rational, impartial verdict and a finding of fact on a legal question officially submitted to them, or to set a penalty or judgment in a jury trial of a court of law. ... A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute. ... Guilty is a Anarcho-punk album, by the band Oi Polloi. ... In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. ...

Contents


The subjectivist theory of choice

This theory regards individuals as autonomous beings who are capable of choice and deserving of respect. Thus, moral guilt and criminal liability should be imposed only on people who can be said to have chosen to behave in a certain way, or to have caused or unreasonably risked causing certain consequences. This contrasts with utilitarianism which emphasises the social benefit implicit in the deterrent value of punishment rather than the justice of the punishment for the particular offender. Most crimes require a mens rea element based on consequences intended or knowingly risked, and sentencing is usually based on a correspondence between the degree of perceived fault and the punishment representing just deserts for that fault. Some societies therefore place a limit on the number of situations in which a person may be held liable for inadvertently causing loss or injury, always requiring a subjective mens rea for a conviction. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Deterrence ALOHA!! is a means of controlling a persons behavior through negative motivational influences, namely fear of punishment. ... sexual abuse is the practice of imposing something unpleasant on a wrongdoer as a response to something unwanted that the wrongdoer has done. ... Lady Justice - allegory of Justice as woman with sword and with book - statue at court building. ... In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. ... ...


But Duff proposes the case of a bridegroom who misses his wedding because it slips his mind when he is in the pub. Orthodox subjectivity represented by mistake as to the victim's consent in rape cases (see DPP v Morgan (1976) AC 182 albeit now repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003) either accepts subjective beliefs at the relevant time as a potential defence, or otherwise deems the accused less culpable for sentencing. The bride, however, would rightly condemn the bridegroom because he obviously did not care, and this attitude is sufficient to make him blameworthy. Duff argues that this example bases condemnation on a subjective basis because all currently held attitudes are subjective, and the failures to remember or foresee are an existing state of mind at the time the actus reus occurs and should considered culpable, particularly when death is the consequence. Mistake of law and mistake of fact are two types of defense by excuse, via which a defendant may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law or liable for damages under a civil law action. ... Consent (as a term of jurisprudence) is a possible justification against civil or criminal liability. ... Culpability descends from the Latin concept of fault (culpa), which is still found today in the phrase mea culpa (literally, my fault). The concept of culpability is intimately tied up with notions of agency, freedom and free will. ... Death is the cessation of physical life in a living organism, or the state of the organism after that event. ...


Manslaughter by gross negligence

Under English law, where a person causes death through extreme carelessness or incompetence, gross negligence is required. While the specifics of negligence may vary from one jurisdiction to another, it is generally defined as failure to exercise a reasonable level of precaution given the circumstances and so may include both acts and omissions. The defendants in such cases are often people carrying out jobs that require special skills or care, such as doctors, police or prison officers, or electricians, who fail to meet the standard which could be expected from them and cause death. In R v Bateman (1925) 19 Cr. App. R. 8 the Court of Criminal Appeal held that gross negligence manslaughter involved the following elements: Criminal negligence, in the realm of criminal common law, is a legal term of art for a state of mind which is careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind, or reckless; it is the mens rea part of a crime which, if occurring simultaneously with the actus reus, gives rise to criminal... In law, jurisdiction from the Latin jus, juris meaning law and dicere meaning to speak, is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted body or to a person to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility. ... In the criminal law, an omission or failure to act will only constitute an actus reus (Latin for guilty act) and give rise to liability when the law imposes a duty to act and the defendant is in breach of that duty. ... Her Majestys Court of Appeal is the second most senior court in the English legal system (with only the judges of the House of Lords above it). ...

  1. the defendant owed a duty to the deceased to take care;
  2. the defendant breached this duty;
  3. the breach caused the death of the deceased; and
  4. the defendant's negligence was gross, that is, it showed such a disregard for the life and safety of others as to amount to a crime and deserve punishment.

The House of Lords in Seymour (1983) 2 AC 493 sought to identify the mens rea for "motor manslaughter" (negligently causing death when driving a motor vehicle). Reference was made to Caldwell (1982) AC 341 and Lawrence (1982) AC 510 which held that a person was reckless if:

  1. he did an act which in fact created an obvious and serious risk of injury to the person or substantial damage to property; and
  2. when he did the act he either had not given any thought to the possibility of there being any such risk or had recognised that there was some risk involved and had nonetheless gone on to do it.

The conclusion was that for motor manslaughter (and, by implication, for all cases of gross negligence), it was more appropriate to adopt this definition of recklessness. Consequently, if the defendant created an obvious and serious risk of causing physical injury to someone, there could be liability whether there was simple inadvertence or conscious risk-taking. It was no longer a defence to argue that the negligence had not been gross.


In Adomako (1995) 1 AC 171 an anaesthetist failed to notice that a tube had become disconnected from the ventilator and the patient died. Lord Mackay disapproved Seymour and held that the Bateman test of gross negligence was the appropriate test in manslaughter cases involving a breach of duty, allowing the jury to consider the accused's conduct in all the surrounding circumstances, and to convict only if the negligence was very serious. Individuals have a duty to act in the following situations:

  • to care for certain defined classes of helpless relatives, e.g. spouses must take care of each other, and parents must look after their dependent children. In R v Stone and Dobinson (1977) QB 354, an elderly woman with anorexia nervosa, came to stay with her brother and his cohabitee, who were both of low intelligence, and subsequently starved herself to death. The Court of Appeal held that the question whether the couple owed a duty to care for the deceased was a question of fact for the jury, which was entitled to take into account the facts that she was a relative of one of the appellants, that she was occupying a room in his house, and that the other appellant had undertaken the duty to care for her by trying to wash her and taking food to her.
  • where there is a contract (even if the person injury was outside the contractual relationship and, in the civil law would be barred by privity from enforcing the contract). In R v Pittwood (1902) 19 TLR 37, a railway crossing gatekeeper had opened the gate to let a cart pass and forgot to shut it again. Later a hay cart was struck by a train while crossing. He was convicted of manslaughter. It was argued on his behalf that he owed a duty only to his employers, the railway company, with whom he had contracted. Wright J, held, however, that the man was paid to keep the gate shut and protect the public so had a duty to act. In contracts relating both to employment and to the provision of services, R v Yaqoob (2005) EWCA Crim 1269 considered a partner in a taxi firm who was responsible for making all necessary arrangements for the inspection and maintenance of a minibus which had overturned after its tyre burst, killing one of its passengers. He was convicted of manslaughter because the failure properly to maintain the minibus was the direct cause of the accident and there was an implied duty owed both to other members of the partnership and to those renting the vehicle, to inspect and maintain beyond the standard required for an MOT test, council inspections, and other duties imposed by regulation. The jury was competent to assess whether the failure to discharge that implied duty was gross negligence without hearing any expert evidence; these were not technical issues and they did not need expert help. The sentence of four years imprisonment was within the sentencing band and not excessive.

In Attorney-General’s Reference (No 2 of 1999) (2000) 3 AER 182, a case on corporate manslaughter that arose out of the Southall rail crash, the Court of Appeal decided the defendant's subjective state of mind (i.e. whether there was conscious risk-taking) is irrelevant and, therefore, so is the question of recklessness, leaving the objective test as the only test for liability. Rose LJ, said: Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A contract is a promise or an agreement that is enforced or recognised by the law. ... In the common law, civil law refers to the area of law governing relations between private individuals. ... The doctrine of Privity in English law provides that a contract cannot confer rights or impose obligations arising under it on any person or agent except the parties to it. ... Corporate manslaughter is a term in English law for an act of homicide committed by a company. ... The Southall rail crash occurred on September 19, 1997, on the Great Western Railway line at Southall, west London. ...

"Although there may be cases where the defendant’s state of mind is relevant to the jury’s consideration when assessing the grossness and criminality of his conduct, evidence of his state of mind is not a pre-requisite to a conviction for manslaughter by gross negligence. The Adomako test is objective, but a defendant who is reckless as defined in Stone may well be the more readily found to be grossly negligent to a criminal degree.
In our judgment unless an identified individual’s conduct, characterisable as gross criminal negligence, can be attributed to the company, the company is not, in the present state of the common law, liable for manslaughter. Civil negligence rules are not apt to confer criminal liability…the identification principle remains the only basis in common law for corporate liability for gross negligence manslaughter. (see imputation). This was only persuasive authority for the law of manslaughter at large, but R v DPP, ex p Jones (2000) (QBD) IRLR 373 which said that the test of negligent manslaughter is objective, confirmed Attorney General’s Reference (No 2 of 1999) as a correct general statement of law.

The principle of imputation reflects the general public policy underpinning the operation of the law which is that ignorantia juris non excusat, the Latin for ignorance of the law is no excuse. ...

Motor manslaughter

Because of a reluctance by juries to convict when the charge was manslaughter, a statutory offence of "causing death by dangerous driving" was introduced. Following the Road Traffic Law Review Committee (1988), the Road Traffic Act 1991 abandoned recklessness in favour of the pre-statutory objective test of "dangerousness", i.e. did the driving fall far below the standard of the competent and careful driver. The Committee also recommended that manslaughter should be an optional charge for the more serious driving cases. Note the possibility of charging an aggravated TWOC for less seriously dangerous driving where death results. In English criminal law, the offence of causing death by dangerous driving is currently defined by the Road Traffic Act 1991 but, following Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171, the offence of motor manslaughter may now be the preferred charge. ... TWOC is an acronym standing for Taken Without Owners Consent. ...


Unlawful act manslaughter

Under English law, according to R v Creamer (1966) 1 QB 72, a person is guilty of involuntary manslaughter when he or she intends an unlawful act that is likely to do harm to the person, and death results which was neither foreseen nor intended. The alternative name for this crime is constructive manslaughter. Although the accused did not intend to cause serious harm or foresee the risk of doing so, and although an objective observer would not necessarily have predicted that serious harm would result, the accused's responsibility for causing death is constructed from the fault in committing what might have been a minor criminal act.


In R v Dawson (1985) 81 Cr. App. R. 150 a petrol station attendant with a weak heart died of heart failure when the appellant attempted a robbery of the station. In judging whether this act was sufficiently dangerous, the Court of Appeal applied a test based on the "sober and reasonable" bystander who could be assumed to know that the use of a replica gun was likely to terrify people and so be a danger to those with a weak heart. Note the aggravated form of criminal damage with intent to endanger life under s1(2) Criminal Damage Act 1971 which could provide the unlawful act if the damage actually causes death. But R v Carey, C and F (2006) EWCA Crim 17 limits the scope of unlawful act manslaughter. An argument became violent and the first defendant punched and kicked one victim. The second defendant assaulted the deceased by pulling her hair back and punching her in the face. The third defendant assaulted another. The deceased was one of the first to run away, after which she felt faint, and later died of a heart condition (ventricular fibrillation or dysrhythmia) which was congenital but which had not been diagnosed before her death. The unlawful act was said to be the affray and the judge held that it was legitimate to aggregate the violence by the other defendants in order to decide whether the affray had subjected the deceased to the threat of at least some physical harm, and so had been a cause of death. On appeal, it was inappropriate to hold the defendants liable for the death. There must be an unlawful act that was dangerous in the sense that sober and reasonable persons would recognise that the act was such as to subject Y to the risk of physical harm. In turn, that act must cause the death. When deciding whether an act is dangerous, knowledge of the victim's characteristics may be relevant. In this case, no reasonable person would have been aware of the victim's heart condition which distinguishes this case from Dawson, and from R v Watson (1989) 1 WLR 684 in which the victim's approximate age (he was 87 years old) and frail state would have been obvious to a reasonable person. A sober and reasonable person would not have foreseen that an apparently healthy person of 15 years would suffer shock as a result of it. The court held that the deceased's death was not caused by injuries that were a foreseeable result of the affray. The assault by the second defendant was an unlawful act causing death. The other two defendants could have been convicted by virtue of common purpose given that the death was an accidental departure from the general plan of the affray. But the Crown did not elect to present the case in this way, but pleaded the case as a public order group activity. The result would be that if anyone died in a general disturbance amounting to an affray, all those who participated could be convicted of manslaughter which would be against public policy. Deaths in a general disturbance are too remote to be caused by all participants. Under English law, the Criminal Damage Act 1971 is the main statute covering damage to property. ... Ventricular fibrillation (V-fib or VF) is a cardiac condition which consists of a lack of coordination of the contraction of the muscle tissue of the large chambers of the heart that eventually leads to the heart stopping altogether. ... // Biography Dysrhythmia is the primary project of Behold. ... In criminal law, the doctrine of common purpose, common design or joint enterprise refers to the situation where two or more people embark on a project with a common purpose that results in the commission of a crime. ...


Thus, a punch which causes a person to fall will almost inevitably satisfy the test of dangerousness, and a victim who falls and suffers a fatal head injury is guilty of manslaughter. It is foreseeable that the victim is at risk of suffering some physical harm (albeit not serious harm) from such a punch and that is sufficient. Physical harm includes shock. The reason why the death resulting from the attempted robbery of the 60 year old petrol station attendant was not manslaughter was that the attempted robbery was not dangerous in the relevant sense. It was not foreseeable that an apparently healthy 60 year old man would suffer shock and a heart attack as a result of such an attempted robbery. But the jury properly found that it was foreseeable that an obviously frail and very old man was at risk of suffering shock leading to a heart attack as a result of a burglary committed at his home late at night.


In R v Charles James Brown (2005) EWCA Crim 2868, following the break-up of his relationship with his girlfriend, at about 3 pm., the applicant sent a text message to his mother saying that he did not want to live any more. He then drove his car against the flow of traffic along the hard shoulder of the A1(M) at high speed, before moving into the carriageway, still accelerating and straddling the centre line. He then crashed, head on, into an oncoming car, killing the passgenger and injuring many others in the resulting consequential crashes. A sentence of 10 years' detention in a young offender institution was upheld because although the intentional focus might have been only on suicide, the defendant must have known from the way he was driving that he would kill or injure at least one other person.


See also

In English criminal law, the offence of causing death by dangerous driving is currently defined by the Road Traffic Act 1991 but, following Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171, the offence of motor manslaughter may now be the preferred charge. ... In sociology and biology, infanticide is the practice of intentionally causing the death of an infant of a given species, by members of the same species. ... The Suicide Act 1961 is a statute which decriminalised suicide in 1961, effective only in the United Kingdom. ...

References

  • Duff, R. A. "Virtue, Vice, and Criminal Liability: Do We Want an Aristotelian Criminal Law?" Vol. 6. Buffalo Criminal Law Review, 147 [1]
  • Duff, R. A. (1990). Intention, Agency and Criminal Liability: Philosophy of Action and the Criminal Law (Philosophical Introductions). London: Blackwell. ISBN 0631153128
  • Gardner, Simon. (1995). "Manslaughter by Gross Negligence" 111 Law Quarterly Review 22


 

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