Identify and discuss those defenses, which may reduce a charge of murder to one of manslaughter.
Paper 1, June 2000, Question 7 Trina Soon
Identify and discuss those defenses, which may reduce a charge of murder to one of manslaughter. (25m)
Murder is the killing of a person, which is neither lawful nor accidental. The mens rea for murder is traditionally known as ‘malice aforethought’, and the punishment is life imprisonment. Murder is subject to the defenses of diminished responsibility, suicide pact, infanticide and provocation. These four mitigating factors can be pleaded upon the charge of murder, and the accused’s liability could be reduced to that of voluntary manslaughter. Manslaughter is killing that does not amount to the crime of murder, but is nevertheless neither lawful nor accidental.
According to the Homicide Act 1957 (S2), diminished responsibility is defined as an abnormal state of mind (at the time of murder) that does not constitute insanity, but is a defense to a charge of murder. This abnormality of the mind must substantially impair the mental responsibility of the accused for his acts. It need not be a brain disease, and must reduce one’s powers of control, judgment or reasoning to a condition that would be considered abnormal by the ordinary man. In R v. Byrne , a young woman was strangled and mutilated by the accused, who did not possess ‘the ability to exercise willpower to control physical acts in accordance with that rational judgment’, simply showing that abnormality covers all aspects of the mind’s activities, rather than just the brain. Thus, diminished responsibility may be caused by disease, injury, mental sub normality, and covers conditions like depression, irresistible impulse (Byrne) and other inherent factors.