Voluntary manslaughter (England and Wales)

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Voluntary manslaughter (Eng. ~ 'Manslaughter in affect') refers to a criminal offense for homicide in English criminal law . Because voluntary manslaughter is to be ordered, who is actually murder committed, but the defense (~ defense plea ') diminished responsibility (~, reduced accountability', s. 2 Homicide Act 1957, amended 2009), loss of control (~, loss of control ' , s. 54 Coroners and Justice Act 2009) or suicide pact (~ 'Suizidpakt', s. 4 HA 1957).

Diminished responsibility

After s. 2 Homicide Act 1957 in the original version was to be convicted of manslaughter , who had committed murder , but could submit that

“He was suffering from such an abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing. "

“He suffered from such an otherness of mind (be it that it was due to a delayed mental development, that it was caused by internal reasons or that it was caused by illness or accident) that his mental responsibility for his actions or omissions was substantially reduced was when he carried out the killing or participated in it. "

- Homicide Act 1957 : Section 2 (1)

The comparatively imprecise formulation has led to many differentiation difficulties. It was particularly difficult to distinguish it from the cases in which the perpetrator used the insanity defense (~ 'plea of ​​insanity') according to R v. M'Naghten (1843), which must necessarily lead to an acquittal.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. for Scotland s. 51B Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 , 2010 version