Manslaughter

Question 1

Voluntary Manslaughter

Answer 1

• An intention to kill or do GBH but there were mitigating circumstances

Question 2

Involuntary Manslaughter

Answer 2

No intention to kill or do GBH

Question 3

Voluntary Manslaughter - loss of control

Answer 3

s. 54 Coroners and Justic Act 2009

Test:

1. Loss of Self Control

2. The of Self Control had a qualifiying trigger

3. A person of D´s sex and age but reasonable tolerance might have acted the same way

1. Loss of Self Control:

• Ahluwalia (1992)
• S. 54(4) limitation on revenge killings

2. Qualifying trigger:

• Doughty (1986)
• Fear of serious violence; s. 55 (3)
• Things said or done; s. 55 (4)
  a) Grave circumstances
  b) Grave D a justifiable sense of being wronged
• Not where D incited the violence (55(6)(a))/thing said or done
• Not sexual infidelity; 55 (6) (c)
• *3. A person of D´s sex and age but reasonable tolerance might have acted the same way**
• A-G for Jersey v Holley (2005)

Question 4

Voluntary Manslaughter - diminished responsibility

Answer 4

Diminished responsibility

• s. 2 Homicide Act 1957
• Abnormality of mind: “a state of mind so different from ordinary human beings that the reasonable man would term it abnormal”
• NOT insanity but a substantial impairment of mental responsibility

Question 5

Involuntary Manslaughter

Answer 5

Unlawful

• Must be a crime
• Must be a signficant cause of death
• Kennedy (No.2) 2007

Dangerous

• An objective test
• Church (1966)
• Dangerous by definition

Question 6

But-for test

Answer 6

The but-for test is a test commonly used in both tort law and criminal law to determine actual causation. The test asks, “but for the existence of X, would Y have occurred?” If the answer is yes, then factor X is an actual cause of result Y.

Question 7

Involuntary Manslaughter - gross negligence

Answer 7

Adomako (1994)

• Breach of a duty of care (omission)
• Negligence causes the death
• The test for gross negligence is objective

Question 8

Involuntary Manslaughter - reckless

Answer 8

Conscious taking of risk

• Highly likely that serious bodily harm will be caused
• • Lidar 1999*
• Recommended for abolition by the Law Commission
  (grouping it into gross negligence)

Question 9

Involuntary Manslaughter - corporate

Answer 9

• Corporate Homicide and Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007
• Cause a person´s death
• A gross breach of the duty of care owed by the organisation
• Examining health and safety regulation