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Voluntary Manslaughter - Coggle Diagram
Voluntary Manslaughter
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No automatic life sentence, but life imprisonment is the maximum sentence
Diminished responsibilty
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must have substantially impaired D to be able to understand the nature of D's conduct, not be able to form a rational judgement, not exercise self-control
Thornton (no1)[1992] - D stabbed her abusive H with a kitchen knife. Charged with murder and appealed with defence of Battered Wife Syndrome. Appeal allowed and conviction quashed. Jury's can be directed on the D's mental characteristics when judging the standard of control.
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Loss of control
Jewell [2014] - loss of control is the loss of ability to act in accordance with judgement or the loss of powers of reasoning
Humphreys [1995] - V joked about D not being able to kill herself properly. Court quashed her murder conviction as her characteristics (17, self harming, prostitute) meany her standard of control was lower.
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Coroners and Justice Act 2009, section 54 is Loss of Control
Burden of proof to be able to prove DR is on the defence, and judged on the balance of probabilities
Abnormality of mental functioning only needs to be a significant contributory factor to be able to prove DR
If D's medical condition was a merely trivial factor or wouldn't have made a difference to D's act in killing V
For loss of control there can be a gap between the initial trigger event and the murder, the longer the gap is, the harder it is to prove there was a loss of control
Coroners and Justice Act 2009, section 52 is diminished responsibility