Involuntary Manslaughter

Key Objectives:What is Involuntary Manslaughter?What is Unlawful Act Manslaughter?

Quick summary on Intent

Direct Intent: D intended to cause the act.

Oblique Intent: D intends to do one thing but the actual consequence which occurs is another thing.

No Intention! The difference between involuntary

manslaughter and murder is that the D does not have intention to kill or cause GBH.

DON’T CONFUSE WITH VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER- THIS IS WHERE D’S CHARGE IS REDUCED TO MANSLAUGHTER BECAUSE HE CAN RELY ON DEFENCE’S OF PROVOCATION, DIMINISHED RESPONSIBILITY ETC.

Sentence…Judge's Discretion!

D can get anything from life imprisonment to a non custodial sentence for IM

2 ways of committing IM

1. Unlawful Act Manslaughter, (also known as Constructive Manslaughter)

2. Gross Negligence Manslaughter

Today, we are going to look at Unlawful Act Manslaughter.

Unlawful Act

Unlawful Act

Unlawful Act must be a Criminal offence

Death must be caused by a criminal unlawful act.

(Recap difference between civil and criminal). Lamb (1967)

Failing to do something (an omission) can’t be classed as an unlawful act in this context. Lowe (1973)

Unlawful Act must be a Dangerous Act

An act that any sober and reasonable person would recognise as causing the risk of some harm at least. Church (1966)

The harm does not need to be serious!

Do you think the judgement in Larkin (1943) was fair?

Unlawful Act can be an act against

property Act can be aimed against a property. A reasonable and sober person must

recognise that the act could subject another person to some risk of harm.

What are the elements of unlawful act for manslaughter as highlighted in Goodfellow (1986)?

Use a brainstorm to illustrate your answer.

The Unlawful Act must cause physical harm

Must be actual physical harm Fear of being harmed is not sufficient.

Why are there different judgements in Watson (1989) and Dawson (1985)?

The unlawful Act must cause the Death

Saman goes to Zakattack’s party in Bradford 3. Sophie-Ann arrives from Girlington with some pills to the party. She offers them to Saman. She insists that these drugs will help her to ‘chill out’ and have a good time. Saman says she would like one but can only swallow pills with water, Sophie-Ann provides her with a bottle of mineral water. Saman has a violent reaction to the pill and dies.

Is anyone liable for her death?

First make notes on:

Dalby (1982) Kennedy (199) Dias (1993) Rogers (2003)

Mens Rea Remember: Involuntary manslaughter

happens when there is no intention to kill or to cause gbh.

So a D must have MR for the unlawful act he committed, but it is not necessary to prove that the D foresaw any harm from this act.

2. Gross Negligence Manslaughter

Today we are looking at GNM.

Homework: What is GNM? What happened in R v Adomako? What is a duty of care?

Corporate Killing The Law to do with Corporate Killing is to be

amended this year. Under the proposed legislation, an

organisation is guilty of the offence of corporate manslaughter if the way in which any of the organisation's activities are managed or organised by the senior managers a) causes a person's death; and b) amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.