CRIMINAL LAW SUPERVISION 6: HOMICIDE

REQUIRED READING
Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford: OUP, 5th ed., 2006) 249-297
Or Michael Allen, Textbook on Criminal Law (Oxford; OUP, 9th ed., 2007) Chapter 9
CMV Clarkson, HM Keating and SR Cunningham, Clarkson and Keating Criminal Law (London:
Thomson, 6th ed. 2007) 660-755

FURTHER READING
Andrew Ashworth, The Doctrine of Provocation [1976] Cambridge Law Journal 292
Celia Wells, Provocation: the Case for Abolition in Andrew Ashworth and Peter
Mitchell (eds.), Rethinking English Homicide Law (Oxford: OUP, 2000)
John Gardner and Timothy Macklem, Compassion Without Respect: Nine Fallacies in
R v Smith [2001] Crim LR 623
Helen Power, Provocation and Culture [2006] Crim LR 871
C. Clarkson, Context and Culpability in Involuntary Manslaughter in Andrew Ashworth and Barry
Mitchell, Rethinking English Homicide Law (Oxford: OUP, 2001) 133
William Wilson, Murder and the Structure of Homicide in Andrew Ashworth and Barry Mitchell,
Rethinking English Homicide Law (Oxford: OUP, 2001) 21
Andrew Ashworth, Principles, Pragmatism and the Law Commissions Recommendations on Homicide
[2007] Crim LR 333
QUESTIONS
1. Critically evaluate the arguments in favour of, and against, the approach of the House of Lords in
Morgan Smith and the Privy Council in Holley
2. Should there be a crime of gross negligence manslaughter?
3. Jason deals in drugs. He regularly supplies Sean with heroin and has become
friends with him. He visits Sean and hands him a bag of heroin. He drinks a
cup of coffee while Sean prepares a syringe and injects himself. Unknown to
Jason the heroin is very pure and potent and Sean falls into a coma. Jason
panics and leaves the flat. Sean dies from the effects of the drugs.
Harry was Seans father. He visits Jasons house and demands money from
him, threatening to go to the police about the circumstances of Seans death
unless Jason complies. Jason tells Harry to leave the house and becomes
furious when Harry responds that he is not going anywhere until he is paid.
Jason rushes towards Harry who runs off. Later that day the two men meet by
chance in a pub. Jason, who has been drinking heavily becomes enraged at the
mere sight of Harry. He fatally stabs Harry. Jason escapes from the pub and
visits Mary, one of his girlfriends. She informs him that she is pregnant by
another man. Seeming unperturbed Jason hands her a bag of heroin from the
same source as the heroin supplied to Sean. He advises her to take it in double
the usual quantity claiming that it is from a weak batch. He then leaves the
house. In fact Mary does not use Jasons heroin as she was already well
supplied with the drug.

4. Fully dissect the elements of the crime of murder. Are there any strict liability elements?
5. Would the law be improved if we were to follow the suggestion of the Law Commission that
homicide be graded into first and second degree murder as well as manslaughter?