Murder, Manslaughterand Infanticide

An EasyRead report on plans to make changes tothe law about killing people

EasyRead version

What is in this report Page

Introduction 1

Who are the Law Commission? 1

Why have they written this report? 1

How did the Law Commissiondecide what needs to change? 2

What is murder? 2

What is manslaughter? 3

There are 4 types of manslaughter 4

What is wrong with our laws on killing?

6

What are the Law Commission’s new ideas?

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1. First Degree Murder 10

2. Second Degree Murder 11

3. Manslaughter 12

Page

When more than one person is involved in a murder 14

When a mother kills her baby

(this is called infanticide) 16

Losing control because of what someone does (this is called provocation) 16

Having a mental illness 17

Being made to do a crime 18

What should be changed? 19

How long should someone go toprison for if they do kill someone else? 20

So what will the new systemlook like? 22

What the words mean 23

1

Introduction

This is an EasyRead report from The LawCommission about changing the laws on Murder.There are a lot of difficult words in this report andsome new ones. These are in blue writing likethis. There is a list of these words and what theymean at the back of the report.

Who are the Law Commission?

They are a group of people who know a lotabout the law and who are trying to make ourlaws better.

Why have they written this report?

Because in July 2005 the government askedthem to look at the laws against killing people inEngland and Wales.

Some of these laws have been around forhundreds of years.

This report says Parliament needs to agreechanges to our laws against killing to bring themup to date.

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How did the Law Commissiondecide what needs to change?

They asked a lot of people what they thought.

CrimeThey also looked at what happens in othercountries when someone kills another person.

CrimeAnd they read books and reports about the law.

What is murder?

Killing a person is sometimes called murder.This means the person who did it meant to killthe other person or meant to hurt them verybadly.

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What is manslaughter?

Killing someone is not always called murder,sometimes it can be manslaughter. Usually thismeans the person who did it did not really meanto kill the other person (or if they did mean to, itwas for a very good reason, or they werementally ill at the time).

This is still very serious, but not quiteas bad as murder. Someone found guilty ofmanslaughter will not spend as long in prisonas someone found guilty of murder.

There are 4 types of manslaughter:

1. When someone does something reallystupid that they knew might kill or badly hurtanother person, this is called recklessmanslaughter.

2. When someone does something stupid thatputs another person at risk which then leadsto them dying, this is called gross negligencemanslaughter.

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3. When someone does something againstthe law which leads to the death of anotherperson, this is called unlawful actmanslaughter.

4. Sometimes it can be called manslaughtereven if someone meant to kill another person.But only if there were special reasons, likewhen:

The other person was partly to blame(perhaps they had done somethingvery bad to the killer.)

Or

The killer had serious mental health problems at the time.

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Or

Both the victim and the killer hadagreed they were going to killthemselves but it went wrong and onlyone died. This is called a suicidepact.

All of these are still very serious, butmanslaughter is not as bad as murder andso a person found guilty of it will spend lesstime in prison than someone found guilty ofmurder.

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What is wrong with our laws on killing?

Here are some reasons why the LawCommission thinks we should change ourlaws:

Say someone punched another person in theface very hard, broke their nose and madethem fall over. Then, when they fell, they hurttheir head so badly they died.

At the moment, when the case goes to court,if a jury thinks that the person who punchedthe other person meant to hurt them badly,that would be called serious harm and itwould count as murder.

Since 2003, if you are found guilty of murderyou will be sent to prison for life no matterwhat the reasons were behind the killing.

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But, when asked, most people said theythought this was not fair and that breakingsomeone’s nose and accidentally killing themwas not as bad as murdering them on

purpose.

Most people thought that it should only becalled murder if you meant to kill someone.And if you didn’t mean to kill them you shouldnot go to prison for life.

The Law Commission thinks that the lawshould be changed so that when someonemeans to hurt another person badly and endsup killing them, it would be 1 of 2 types ofcase.

1. Cases where, even though someone is notplanning to kill the other person, they knowthat what they are doing could lead to theother person’s death.

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Like if somebody took another person to thetop of a cliff and punched them near the edge,making them fall to their death. This would bemore serious, and the killer would spendlonger in prison.

2. Cases where someone meant to really hurtanother person but didn’t realise it could killthem. Like when the person punchedsomeone who banged their head and died.

The Law Commission thinks in this case thekiller should spend less time in prison than ifthey meant to kill them.

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Sometimes a person might not mean to killanyone but they do something so stupid andbad that people do get killed.

This would be like a terrorist who wants tofrighten people with a bomb. They thinkbecause they ring up and give a warning, thearea can be cleared and no one will be killed.

But say not everyone hears the warning andsomeone is killed in the explosion.

At the moment, because the terrorist rang andgave a warning, they would be charged withreckless manslaughter not murder.

But the Law Commission thinks they shouldbe charged with murder, even though theysay they didn’t mean to kill anyone. Becauseputting a bomb somewhere is so dangerousthey should have known someone could bekilled.

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What are the Law Commission’s new ideas?

The Law Commission thinks there should be 3different types of charge when one person killsanother.

1. First Degree Murder

This would be:

When someone meant to kill another person.

Or

When they meant to hurt them badly andthey knew it might well cause their deathbut they did not care. Like taking someoneto the edge of a cliff and punching them,knowing they would probably fall and die.

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2. Second Degree Murder

This would be:

When someone meant to badly hurt another person but they didn’t realise it would kill them

Or

When someone hurts another person whothen dies, and they knew it was a verydangerous thing to do and it might causetheir death. But they did it because theywanted to hurt the other person, or makethem afraid they were going to be hurt.

It would also be second degree murder if:

Someone can prove the other person didsomething really bad that made them soangry and upset that they couldn’t help thekilling.

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Or

Someone kills when they can’t help it because of their mental illness.

Or

In a suicide pact, like when 2 people agreeto kill each other but it goes wrong and onlyone dies.

3. Manslaughter

Under the new law, this would be:

When someone kills another person eitherwhen they are trying to hurt them, or whenthey commit a crime that they know couldput the other person at risk of being killed.

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Or

When someone does something very stupid that leads to another person’s death.Like if a member of staff in a group homeknew there was a gas leak but didn’t botherto report it and the house blew up and

someone was killed.

Both of these killings would be manslaughterunder the new law.

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When more than one person is involved in amurder

Like when 3 football fans are walking home froma match. They see someone who supports theother team and they get into a fight. 2 of themstart kicking him and when he falls over theirfriend stabs him in the heart and kills him.

The 2 men say they knew their friend sometimescarried a knife but they did not know he woulduse it. They say they didn’t mean to kill the otherfootball fan.

At the moment, if the jury decided that they didn’trealise their friend might kill someone, theywould be found not guilty of the killing. Theycould only be found guilty of assault, eventhough the victim died.

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The Law Commission thinks this isn’t fair andthat even though what they did was not as badas their friend who did the stabbing, they shouldbe found guilty of manslaughter if:

They were joining in with their friend in theattack.

Or

They should have known that their friendmight murder someone because he had aknife.

The Law Commission also thinks that if the twofootball fans knew their friend might use theknife, or wanted him to use the knife, then theyshould also be found guilty of murder with him.

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When a mother kills her baby (this iscalled infanticide)

Sometimes (but not very often) when someonehas a baby and they become mentally ill theyend up killing the baby. When the baby is underone year old the law calls this infanticide.

The Law Commission thinks that doctors shouldbe able talk to the mother after the trial to findout what happened. At the moment sometimesthe mother does not want to speak to doctorsbefore the trial because she cannot believe shekilled her baby.

Losing control because of what someonedoes (this is called provocation)

Provocation is when someone says they killedanother person because that person didsomething so bad it made them lose control ofthemselves and kill. If the jury think they mighthave done the same thing, if it happened tothem, then the crime is manslaughter, notmurder.

This means the killer would not go to prison forlife.

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What should be changed?

At the moment, if someone kills a person whothey are very frightened of because that personhas made serious threats to hurt them, it alwayscounts as murder. This means the killer wouldgo to prison for life.

The Law Commission think the law should bechanged so that if this happens then, in somecases, it should count as manslaughter and aperson who kills through fear should not be sentto jail for life.

Having a mental illness

When someone does a crime because theyhave a mental health problem this is calleddiminished responsibility. The LawCommission wants to see changes in the waywe decide whether someone could not helpcommitting a crime because of their mentalillness.

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Being made to do a crime

When someone gets involved in a killingbecause they feel they have to or else they willbe killed themselves, this is called duress.

Like when a man gets into a taxi and holds agun to the driver’s head and asks to be takensomewhere so he can kill another person. Thetaxi driver might feel he has to take him or hewould be shot.

If the taxi driver did as he was told and thegunman shot someone dead, at the momentboth the gunman and the taxi driver would becharged with murder.

They could both get life in prison.

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The Law Commission don’t think this is fairbecause the taxi driver only did what thegunman said as he thought he would beshot if he said no.

What should be changed?

The Law Commission think that if someone isinvolved in a killing because they were made to,like the taxi driver, then they should not go toprison for murder or even attempted murder.

But a jury would have to believe that they reallywere afraid they would be killed themselves andhad no chance of calling the police.

The jury would also have to believe that anyonewould have done the same thing and not foughtback because it was just too dangerous.

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How long should someone go to prison for ifthey do kill someone else?

If someone is found guilty of murder they willbe sent to prison for life.

Usually life does not mean they will have to stayin prison until they die, that depends onhow serious the murder was.

Prisoners can serve part of their sentence out inthe community, if they behave well in jail and aresorry for what they did, this is called on parole.Then if they stay out of trouble they will not haveto go back to prison.

The judge will say how long a person must stayin prison for before they can ask to be let out onparole. This is called the minimum term.

When that time is up the prison will decide if thekiller is still dangerous or not. If they are they willhave to stay in prison for longer.

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When the prison decides they are not dangerousanymore they can be let out on parole but theremight be some rules they have to follow. This iscalled being on licence.

This licence might say they have to do thingslike report to a police station or stay away fromsome places. If they do not do what it says, theymight have to go back to prison.

The Law Commission thinks that its plans forfirst and second degree murder will help judgesdecide how long someone who kills has tospend in jail, this is called the minimum term.

It should make the system fairer so peoplespend longer in jail for first degree murder thanthey would for second degree murder.

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So what will the new system look like?

The Law Commission sees the new system asbeing like a ladder, with very serious killings atthe top and less serious killings at the bottom.

Killers will receive longer sentences if their crimeis at the top of the ladder. So for a very seriousmurder they really will have to go to prison untilthey die.

But if there were reasons why the killinghappened, and the crime is near the bottom ofthe ladder, they should get a shorter sentenceand not have to go to prison for life.

The Law Commission thinks it’s about time thelaw was changed to make the system fairer.

Parliament will read this report to see if theyagree.

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What the words mean

AssaultHitting or hurting another person.

Diminished responsibilityWhen someone does a crime because theyhave a mental health problem.

DuressWhen someone gets involved in a killingbecause they feel they have to or they would bekilled themselves.

GuiltyWhen someone has done something wrong orbroken a law.

Not GuiltyWhen someone has not broken a law.

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InfanticideWhen a mother kills a baby.

Life sentenceThis can mean being sent to prison for a numberof years up to until you die, but you can be letout earlier.

ManslaughterWhen one person kills another but did not meanto, or if they did mean to, there were very goodreasons why they killed them.

Reckless Manslaughter When someone does something really stupid that they knew might kill or badly hurt another person.

Unlawful Act Manslaughter When someone does something against the law which leads to the death of another person.

Gross Negligence Manslaughter.When someone does something stupidthat puts another person at risk whichthen leads to them dying.

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Minimum TermWhen a judge says how long a person muststay in prison for before they can ask to be letout on parole.

MurderWhen a person meant to kill someone, or killedthem when trying to hurt them very badly.

Attempted MurderWhen someone tries to kill anotherperson.

First Degree Murder When someone means to kill another person.

Second degree murder When someone means to badly hurt another person and knows they might die.

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ProvocationWhen someone says they killed because theother person did something that made them losecontrol.

Parole (or “on licence”)When someone is let out of prison because theyare no longer seen as a danger and they aresorry for what they did.

SuicideKilling yourself on purpose.

Suicide Pact Two or more people agreeing to kill themselves in some way.

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Credits

This paper has been written, designed andproduced for the Law Commission by theEasyRead service @ Inspired ServicesPublishing Ltd. ISL227/07. January 2008.

Artwork is from the Valuing People ClipartCollection and cannot be used anywhere elsewithout written permission from InspiredServices Publishing Ltd.

www.inspiredservices.org.uk

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