voluntary manslaughter

Question 1

anatomy of voluntary manslaughter

Answer 1

actus reus of murder + mens rea of murder + partial defence

reduces murder to manslaughter

defences include loss of control, diminished responsibility

Question 2

old defence of provocation

Answer 2

Provocation was a common law partial defence (see R v Duffy [1949] 1 All ER 932) which was then modified by S.3 of the Homicide Act 1957.

• Too many ‘bad’ defendants were able to rely upon it
• Too many ‘good’ defendants were excluded due to the “sudden and temporary loss of control” requirement, notably battered women who kill
• Problems with the ‘reasonable person’ standard

Question 3

loss of control

Answer 3

R v Dawes (2013)

Loss of control is a partial defence to murder, which can be established if D kills or is a party to the killing of anther when D loses D’s self-control because of a qualifying trigger and a normal person, in the circumstance of D, might have reacted in the same or similar way to D.

Burden of proof - The prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defence does not apply.

D must have lost self-control;
D’s loss of self-control must be attributable to a qualifying trigger;
A hypothetical normal person might have reacted in the same or similar way to D.
could not restrain themselves - does not mean there was no intention
This requires that the defendant had in fact lost the ability to act in accordance with considered judgement or lost the normal powers of reasoning.—subjective standard

Question 4

Qualifying trigger in loss of control

Answer 4

• fear of serious violence
• sense of being seriously wronged

A hypothetical normal person might have reacted in the same or similar way

Question 5

exclusions of qualifying trigger

Answer 5

Exclusion 1: Where the thing said or done was induced by D’s own conduct for the purpose of using violence in response, D cannot rely on loss of control defence.

Exclusion 2: Sexual infidelity cannot be a qualifying trigger. (R v Clinton)
Sexual infidelity in itself cannot be a qualifying trigger, but it should be taken into account where it forms part of a cohesive whole that makes D lose self-control.

Question 6

Dimished responsibility

Answer 6

• D has an abnormality of mental functioning;
  Abnormality of mental functioning is a state of mind that is so different from ordinary people that the reasonable person would term it abnormal. R v Byrne [1960] 2 QB 396
• Such abnormality of mental functioning has arisen from a recognised medical condition;
• Such abnormality of mental functioning has substantially impaired D’s ability to do one or more of the three things;