Culpable Homicide Flashcards
Homicide
Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. Must be proved that the killing was blameworthy or culpable. If the act was culpable, you need to work out whether the act was murder, manslaughter or, less commonly, infanticide.
Murder v Manslaughter
The critical factors to consider for a charge of murder are whether the offender intended to:
- kill the person, or
- cause bodily injury that the offender knew was likely to cause death.
If neither of these intentions can be proven, the most likely charge is
manslaughter.
Homicide Defined
Homicide is the killing of a human being by another, directly or indirectly, by any means whatsoever. Homicide must be culpable to be an offence.
S159 - Killing of A Child
(1) A child becomes a human being when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother, whether it has breathed or not, whether it has an independent circulation or not, and whether the navel string is severed or not.
(2) The killing of such child is homicide if it dies in consequence of injuries received before, during, or after birth.
S160 - Culpable Homicide
Means the killing is blameworthy.
(2) Homicide is culpable when it consists in the killing of any person—
(a) By an unlawful act; or
(b) By an omission without lawful excuse to perform or observe any legal duty; or
(c) By both combined; or
(d) By causing that person by threats or fear of violence, or by deception, to do an act which causes his death; or
(e) By wilfully frightening a child under the age of 16 years or a sick person.
(3) Except as provided in section 178 of this Act, culpable homicide is either murder or manslaughter.
(4) Homicide that is not culpable is not an offence.
S160(2)(a) - Unlawful Act
Means a breach of any Act, regulation, rule, or bylaw. The common law requires that the act must be one that is likely to do harm or is inherently “dangerous’, as well as being unlawful.
To be unlawful, there must be proof of all of the elements of the offence, including any mens rea and it must be done without lawful justification or excuse.
R v Myatt
[Before a breach of any Act, regulation or bylaw would be an unlawful act under s 160 for the purposes of culpable homicide] it must be an act likely to do harm to the deceased or to some class of persons of whom he was one.
S150A - Standard of care applicable to persons under legal duties or performing unlawful acts
Applies to any case where the unlawful act requires proof of negligence, or is a strict or absolute liability offence.
In common law, allegations of culpable homicide have been supported
where the offender has caused death by:
- committing arson
- giving a child an excessive amount of alcohol to drink
- placing hot cinders and straw on a drunk person to frighten them
- supplying heroin to a person who subsequently dies from an overdose
- throwing a large piece of concrete from a motorway overbridge into the path of an approaching car
- conducting an illegal abortion where the mother dies.
S160(2)(b) - Omission to Perform Legal Duty
Death caused by an omission, without lawful excuse, to perform or observe any legal duty as defined by s160(2)(b).
This covers cases where nothing is done when there is a legal duty to act, and certain cases of positive conduct accompanied by a failure to discharge a legal duty, in particular a duty of care. If death results from any such omission the defendant may be convicted of manslaughter, provided there was sufficient fault, or murder if the defendant had the requisite mens rea.
Legal Duty
Uncodified common law duties. The Crimes Act 1961 defines duties to:
- provide the necessaries and protect from injury (s151)
- provide necessaries and protect from injury to your charges when you are a parent or guardian (s152)
- provide necessaries as an employer (s153)
- use reasonable knowledge and skill when performing dangerous acts, such as surgery (s155)
- take precautions when in charge of dangerous things, such as machinery (s156)
- avoid omissions that will endanger life (s157).
it must appear that death would not have occurred as and when it did had the defendant performed the duty in question, and it must have been “a substantial and operative cause of death”.
S160(2)(c) - Unlawful Act & Omissions of Duty
To drive a car so recklessly that you kill a pedestrian is both an unlawful act and an omission to observe your duty to take precautions when you are in charge of a dangerous thing (s156)
S160(2)(d) - Threats, Fear of Violence and Deception
You must prove that the fear of violence was well founded, but you do not need to show that the deceased’s action was the only means of escape.
R v Corbett - “the victim’s conduct must be such that it could be reasonably foreseen, is proportionate to the threat, or is “within the ambit of reasonableness. Although the victim might do the wrong thing or act unwisely, it is sufficient if the reaction is “in the foreseeable range.”
Examples:
- jumps or falls out of a window and dies because they think they are going to be assaulted
- jumps into a river to escape an attack and drowns
- who has been assaulted and believes their life is in danger, jumps from a train and is killed.
R v Tomars
Formulates the issues in the following way:
1. Was the deceased threatened by, in fear of or deceived by the defendant?
2. If they were, did such threats, fear or deception cause the deceased to do the act that caused their death?
3. Was the act a natural consequence of the actions of the defendant, in the sense that reasonable and responsible people in the defendant’s position at the time could reasonably have foreseen the consequences?
4. Did these foreseeable actions of the victim contribute in a [significant] way to
his death?
S160(2)(e) - Frightening a Child or Sick Person
May be caused by any act that frightens the child or sick person, so long as it is done wilfully. “Wilfully frightening” is regarded as “intending to frighten, or at least be reckless as to this”. The defendant must at least have been aware of a real risk that the victim is under 16 or sick.
S163 - Killing By Influence of the Mind
Would apply to someone who mentally tortures another person who is already mentally or physically sick, so that the victim has a mental breakdown and commits suicide.
Example: A man took tests at a hospital for an ongoing stomach complaint. “For a joke”, a hospital employee sent him a letter saying he had terminal, inoperable cancer. If the man had, as a consequence, committed suicide, the sender of the letter could be charged under s163.
