Manslaughter Flashcards
Must be unlawful act for unlawful act manslaughter
Lamb, Franklin
Lowe - Omission not enough
Could be arson, burglary, assault etc
Sentence
Maximum life
Unlawful act must be dangerous test
Church - “such as all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise must subject the other person to, at least, the risk of some harm resulting therefrom, albeit not serious harm” objective
Larkin - threatening with razor
Doesn’t have to be the kind of harm that occurs - “JM and SM”
“Risk of harm” meaning unlawful act
Physical harm
Shock caused heart attack in Dawson
Watson - frailty increases chance
Bristow, Dunn and Delay - reasonable sober person would foresee harm resulting from burglary
Causation unlawful act
Kennedy - injecting self is an intervening act
MR unlawful act
Must have MR for crime but doesn’t have to realise act is unlawful or dangerous
Newbury and Jones - did not foresee harm but still convicted
Gross negligence elements
Adomako- existence of a duty of care, act or omission in breach, which creates a serious and obvious risk of death, and cashless death. The whole must amount to gross negligence - conduct so bad that in all circumstances it is criminal
Examples of duty of care
- Singh - duty of landlords to tenants
- Litchfield - duty of owner and master of sailing ship to crew
- Khan and Khan - duty of heroin supplier to V
- Finlay - scout master and scouts
- Edwards - duty of parents to children
- Wacker- smuggler to immigrants
Creating a state of affairs for gross negligence
Conflicting judgements on whether a person who supplies heroin owes a duty of care. Kennedy vs Evans. Duty is for judge to decide.
“Which causes a death”
= causation, Pagett, Kimsey
“Gross” negligence - standard
Bateman - was not responsible as any competent doctor would do the same
Meaning of “risk of death”
Obvious risk of death, judged objectively
Mens rea
Obvious risk of death judged objectively, doesn’t matter if D is aware or not
