involuntary manslaughter unlawful act 2014. 11/22/2015 copyright 2006 free template from...

Involuntary manslaughter

Unlawful Act2014

04/20/23 copyright 2006 Free template from brainybetty.com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2

For starters...

• Using the mini white boards describe what you believe the term “involuntary” means.

• Add this to manslaughter…

• What is “involuntary manslaughter”?

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Aims and Objectives• To develop ............................. Of the offence of

involuntary manslaughter• To understand the law relating to unlawful act

manslaughter • To complete the handout to enable you to use

legal................................ to support your answers• To .........................the law to .....................questions

• Outcome....All learners will write an essay on the problem questions given to you by your tutor.


What is involuntary manslaughter?

Involuntary manslaughter is usually where D kills without the …………………………………………

Therefore the killing is usually an unexpected result of

D committing an unlawful and dangerous act and from that a death has occurred

Or

D has been so grossly negligent that someone has died.


Therefore there are 3 main ways of committing Involuntary

manslaughter…1. Unlawful Act Manslaughter (Constructive

manslaughter)

2. Gross Negligence manslaughter

3. Reckless Manslaughter

Maximum sentence is life but the judge has discretion to impose any sentence that is suitable

}We study for the exam!


Unlawful Act Manslaughter


Unlawful Act Manslaughter• The current test is laid

down in R v Goodfellow which sets out the 4 questions that have to be answered positively if a conviction is to be secured:

• 1. Did d commit an unlawful act?

• 2. Was the act objectively dangerous?

• 3. Did the act cause death?• 4. Did d have the

necessary mens rea for the unlawful act? i.e. was the act intentional?

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Therefore….• Unlawful Act + Danger + Death + MR of

the unlawful act = Unlawful Act manslaughter.

• One crucial difference between the AR of murder and unlawful Act manslaughter is that given UAM requires an unlawful and dangerous act it follows that if d omits to Act he cannot be guilty of this form of manslaughter.


1. Was the Act Unlawful?

• The death must be caused by a criminal offence, a tort is not sufficient.

• Task:Research the following cases and be ready to discuss them as a class – you have 5 mins!


• R v Franklin

• R v Lamb

• R v Goodfellow

Throwing a box into the sea was not sufficient

The v was not in fear therefore not assault

Arson is an unlawful act.

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Starter Activity...

• Complete the unlawful act table on page 6 of your handout.

• Use what we learned yesterday and your St Brendan’s


2. Dangerous Act• The Unlawful Act must

also be dangerous. This is tested objectively as stated in R v Church.

• In R v Church it was held that:

1. It need not be the accused who foresaw the harm but any reasonable and sober person.

2. The risk may only be some harm, not necessarily serious harm

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Task:• Complete the cases of

• New bury & Jones

• Mitchell

• Dawson

• What do they tell us?

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• DPP v Newbury & Jones

• R v Mitchell

• R v Dawson

Boys dropped slab on train killing guard. If sober and reasonable man saw risk of injury it does not matter if D did not

The accused punched someone during an argument at a post office . The man who was attacked fell back and injured a old lady who later died from her injuries. It was enough that the initial act was objectively dangerous

Armed robbery at petrol station, no physical attack but attendant had heart disease and soon after died of a heart attack.Not m/s as reasonable man would no have seen risk of injury

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• The dangerous act should be intended to cause physical harm, that can be towards a person or towards property.

• Can you think of case where damage to property was intended but the dangerous act resulted in injury to a person/people?


3. The cause of death

• The unlawful act must cause the death. The rules here are the same as they are for murder and the egg-shell skull rule is also to be considered.

• Q: Tell me the rules on factual and legal causation

• Now complete the table on page 9 of your handout.


Some additional points on causation

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• The unlawful act need not be the sole cause of the death so long as it was not trivial:

• Shohid(2003)

• Carey (2006)

The original attack which forced the V onto a railway was sufficiently serious to be the cause of the subsequent death. It was not necessary for it to be the only cause..

In this case the original attack was no thought to be sufficiently serious o be the cause of death.

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• If there are a series of acts by the D and it can not be proved which particular act caused the death it is sufficient to show any of the acts could have been responsible.

• A-G Ref (No 4 of 1980)D carried out a number of acts on the V, any of

which could have killed her, but it could not be proved which one actually did. The court held that D could still be convicted of manslaughter.

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Causation and DrugsR v Cato (1976)

R v Dalby (1982) -

R v Rogers (2003) D assisted in clamping the tourniquet - UAM

R v Kennedy – LEADING AUTHORITY

2 heroin users injected each other several times one night. V died in the morning. D convicted of manslaughter

D supplied drugs to V, V then self injected and died. Original conviction of UAM quashed. Merely supplying drugs did not cause death.

D prepared the drug and gave it to V as requested for V to inject himself. H of L held the V’s act broke the chain of causation.

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4. The unlawful act must be intentional

• Here, an omission will not do but there need not have been any intention to cause harm nor must d realise the act was unlawful or dangerous.

• Task: Complete the cases on page 13 of your handout

The mens rea of unlawful act manslaughter is:-

The MR of UAM is:

The intention to commit the unlawful and dangerous act

You must state this clearly in the exam!


Task:

• Complete the table on your handout without using your notes.

• Then in the groups provided write a scenario for the rest of the class. You will need to make a mark scheme for your answer and all you need to consider is the offence of unlawful Act manslaughter. (use AQA website for help with a mark scheme!)

• NB Your tutor will check your question before you hand it out to everyone else. This exercise will help you to understand the topic in more depth.

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