CM -involuntary manslaughter

Question 1

What is involuntary manslaughter a type of?

Answer 1

It is a type of homicide

Question 2

What is the definition of involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 2

The unlawful killing of a human being under the queens peace without malice afterthought

Question 3

What is the maximum for involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 3

Life imprisonment but a judge can give a lesser sentence

Question 4

What are the 3 types of involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 4

Constructive manslaughter
Gross negligence
Reckless

Question 5

What is the three stage test for constructive manslaughter?

Answer 5

• unlawful positive criminal act
• act must have caused the death
• the act must be a dangerous one

Question 6

The act must be a criminal one - which case was not criminal therefore not CM?

Answer 6

R V Franklin 1983

Question 7

What was R V Franklin about?

Answer 7

D threw a large box off Brighton pier which was a civil wrong

Question 8

What examples are criminal acts?

Answer 8

Assault 
Battery 
Theft 
Robbery 
Burglary 
Administering of obnoxious substances under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 
S23

Question 9

What case demonstrates a lack of criminal act?

Answer 9

R V Lamb 1967

Question 10

What was R V Lamb about ?

Answer 10

Lamb shot his friend , he aimed and pulled the trigger both men thought it would not fire. V did not fear the gun so there was no assault, no crime and therefore no constructive manslaughter

Question 11

Which case demonstrated an unlawful criminal act for CM?

Answer 11

R v Larkin 1943

Question 12

What is R v Larkin 1943 about?

Answer 12

Larkin threatened another man with a razor for chatting up his girlfriend. The other mans girlfriend swayed up against the razor and she was cut and died- this was CM because there was an assault even if D didn’t intend on killing the girlfriend

Question 13

Which case was about negligence but not CM because it was an omission?

Answer 13

R v Lowe 1973

Question 14

Which case demonstrates the act does not have to be aimed at the victim or even at a person?

Answer 14

R V Mitchell 1983

Question 15

What was R V Mitchell 1983 about?

Answer 15

Mitchell was involved in a fight in a post office - he pushed someone who fell into an elderly woman who died - guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Question 16

Which case demonstrates that it doesn’t have to be aimed at a person?

Answer 16

R v Goodfellow 1986

Question 17

What is R V Goodfellow about?

Answer 17

D tried to firebomb his own house so that he could be rehoused by the council, his family were inside who were killed . Guilty of CM because act was dangerous and unlawful

Question 18

What must there be in CM?

Answer 18

There must be causation and no novus actus interveniens

Question 19

What is Cato 1976 about?

Answer 19

Two druggies injected drugs into each other - one of them died , D was convicted of CM for administering obnoxious substances

Question 20

What is R v Dalby about ?

Answer 20

D supplied drugs but did not inject them therefore there was an intervening act - not guilty

Question 21

What was Dias 2002 about ?

Answer 21

D prepared a syringe , he and V both Injected , D woke to find v Ill, v was taken to hospital who died , D’s conviction was quashed

Question 22

Which case was D not

Convicted because they only prepared and handed over the drugs but did not administer them to V?

Answer 22

R v Kennedy 2007

Question 23

Which case caused confusion regarding Kennedy because they said that self injection does not necessarily mean the chain is broken ?

Answer 23

Mac Angus and Kane v HM Advocate 2009

Question 24

Is the test to whether an act is dangerous subjective or objective?

Answer 24

Objective

Question 25

Which case introduced the idea of the objective test

Answer 25

R v Church 1966

Question 26

What is R v Church 1966 about ?

Answer 26

Church and a woman went to a van for sex but he was unable to satisfy her and she got angry - he threw her in a river after he knocked her out
He was convicted of CM because the reasonable person would have seen that throwing someone into a river as dangerous

Question 27

What type of law is involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 27

Common law

Question 28

What case decided that psychological harm was insufficient and the harm must be physical?

Answer 28

Dawson and Others 1985

Question 29

What was Dawson and Others about?

Answer 29

Dawson and others carried out an armed robbery. The man who’s shop they robbed from sounded the alarm but died of a heart attack, he had a heart condition. Defendants were acquitted because they could not have been aware of D’s condition

Question 30

Which case demonstrated that the act was dangerous because of the obvious frailty of V?

Answer 30

R v Watson 1989

Question 31

What was R V Watson 1989 about?

Answer 31

Watson and ab accomplice threw a brick through an 89 year olds house and entered with the intention of stealing. She died of a heart attack.

Question 32

Why were they not acquitted in r v Watson 1989 ?

Answer 32

It was decided that it wasn’t certain that their actions had caused the death.

Question 33

Which case about burglary demonstrated a dangerous act?

Answer 33

Bristow, Dunn and Delay 2013

Question 34

Which case showed that the act wasn’t dangerous and it was just one punch?

Answer 34

Carey and Others 2006

Ran after being hit and died of an unknown heart condition which was triggered when she started to run

Question 35

Which case was it decided that the act was dangerous because D did multiple punches?

Answer 35

R v Lynch 2007

Question 36

Which case demonstrated one punch manslaughter?

Answer 36

Furby 2006

Question 37

Which case demonstrated that for constructive manslaughter, it is only , men’s Rea of the crime constituting the unlawful dangerous act that is required?

Answer 37

R v Newbury and Jones 1976