Suicide Pact Flashcards
Q: What is a suicide pact?
S4(3) Homicide Act 1957
‘A common agreement between two or more persons having for its object the death of all of them, whether or not each is to take his own life, but nothing done by a person who enters into a suicide pact shall be treated as done by him in pursuance of the pact unless it is done while he has the settled intention of dying in pursuance of the pact’.
Q: What does a ‘settled intention of dying mean’?
Each of the parties to the pact must be absolutely certain that they intend to die in pursuance of it. No one is wavering about this and has made a decision.
Q: What does the Homicide Act alter a charge of murder to if a suicide pact defence is successfully raised?
S4 Homicide Act 1957
It shall be manslaughter and shall not be murder for a person acting in pursuance of a suicide pact between him and another to kill the other or be a party to the other being killed by a third person.
Q: Who does the burden of proof lie with? What must they prove?
The burden of proof that the defendant was acting in the pursuance of a suicide pact is placed on the accused on the balance of probabilities.
He must show that:
- A suicide pact had been made; and
- He had the intention of dying at the time the killing took place.
Q: Example case of a suicide pact
Sweeny 1986- offender was prone to depression and had married the deceased when she was suffering from advanced muscular dystrophy. They decided to commit suicide together by taking tablets and then setting fire to their car while they were inside it. Once the fire started, both tried to escape, but the wife was killed. The offender suffered serious burns. He pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife on the basis of suicide pact.
