Unlawful Act Manslaughter

Question 1

Define unlawful act manslaughter

Answer 1

… Could potentially amount to involuntary manslaughter, the unlawful killing of a human being under the queen’s peace without Malice aforethought. Two types - unlawful act and gross negligence manslaughter

Unlawful act manslaughter is when a person causes death of another by performing an unlawful and dangerous act that is likely to cause harm but not serious harm

Question 2

Actus reus

Answer 2

Requires an unlawful act, that’s dangerous and causes death of victim

Unlawful act
Must be a crime, not a civil wrong (Fenton)
“would a crime have been committed if V hadn’t died?” (lamb)

Must be dangerous
Whether unlawful act is dangerous is objective (Church)
In larkin, humphries states “whether the act is considered dangerous is objective and must be an act that a sober and reasonable man would regard as dangerous”
Apply

Finally, we must also establish that Vs death was caused by D. Causation in fact (Pagett) and law (Jordan)
Self evident OR answer template

Question 3

Mens rea

Answer 3

Mens rea for unlawful act manslaughter is the mens rea required for the unlawful act (Newbury and Jones) eg battery = direct or subjective to apply unlawful physical force

Direct intention (Mohan) main aim or purpose

or subjective recklessness (cunningham) realised risk and took it anyway

Question 4

Defences

Answer 4

Apply defences

Question 5

Conclude

Answer 5

In light of the above I believe D could potentially be guilty/not guilty. If guilty they will be given a discretionary sentence up to life