Homicide-Related Offences
Homicide-related offences can be classified into the following different categories:
Murder
Constructive Murder
Manslaughter (Voluntary and Involuntary)
Conspiracy to Murder
Assault causing death
If you, or someone you know is facing charged for homicide-related offences, please contact our experienced team of criminal lawyers to achieve the best outcome in your circumstances.
Murder
Section 18 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) outlines the maximum penalty for murder is 25 years to life.
The elements for murder are as follows:
The accused must have an intent to kill, intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, reckless indifference to human life.
The accused committed an act or omission causing death. Causation can be by:
Substantial operating cause
Chain of causation is not broken
Reasonable foreseeability
The act or conduct of the accused must be voluntary, otherwise, it’s manslaughter.
Murder can also be raised in cases of ‘natural consequence’.
For example, in the case of Royall v The Queen (1991) 172 CLR 378, Mason CJ identified that where the conduct of the accused results in the victim apprehending physical harm such as to make it a natural consequence that the victim would try and escape (where they are injured in the course of escaping), the injury or death is caused by the accused’s conduct.
Constructive Murder
Constructive murder follows the same basic principles of murder in general.
Section 18(1)(a) stipulates that constructive murder occurs if the act or omission causing death was done in an attempt to commit, or during or immediately after the commission, by the accused, or some accomplice with him, a crime punishable by imprisonment to life or for 25 years (L v The Queen (2017) 260 A Crim R 101).
There is no requirement of intent when the act was committed during the commission of a crime with life or 25 years imprisonment.
The prosecution must prove that the accused engaged wilfully and voluntarily in the initial offence. Once the mental element for the foundational offence is established to the requisite standard, malice is also established: IL v The Queen at [169].
An example of this could pertain to an accused deciding to rob another person’s house and during this robbery, the accused was confronted by the owner and killed them. In this case, if the intention to commit the initial offence was established, the accused could also be charged and potentially convicted of murder based on the surrounding facts.
Involuntary Manslaughter
An accused may be charged with involuntary manslaughter by an unlawful and dangerous act. This is
because the evidence is unclear as to whether the accused acted with the intention of killing.
The elements to be established are:
The death of the deceased was caused by an act of the accused
The accused intended to commit the act that caused the death
The act of the accused was unlawful, and
The act of the accused was dangerous.
Alternatively, manslaughter can occur by criminal negligence. Nydam v R [1977] VR 430 at 445 described criminal negligence in more detail:
“In order to establish manslaughter by criminal negligence, it is sufficient if the prosecution shows that the act which caused the death was done by the accused consciously and voluntarily, without any intention of causing death or grievous bodily harm but in circumstances which involved such a great falling short of the standard of care which a reasonable man would have exercised and which involved such a high risk that death or grievous bodily harm would follow that the doing of the act merited criminal punishment.”
Voluntary Manslaughter
In cases of voluntary manslaughter, the elements of murder are present, however, the accused’s conduct was the result of provocation or substantial impairment (The Queen v Lavender (2005) 222 CLR 67).
Voluntary manslaughter commonly occurs when the mental states for murder are evident, but a reasonable person in the accused’s position would not have considered a lethal response reasonable in the circumstances (Grant v R [2014] NSWCCA 67 at [63]–[66]).
Conspiracy to Murder
Whilst conspiracy to murder does not involve the death of anyone, it is still a serious homicide-related offence.
Definition & Examples
Conspiring to commit murder is an offence under section 26 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). It is an offence to conspire and agree to murder a person or to solicit, encourage, persuade, or endeavour to persuade, or propose to, any person to commit murder.
Common examples of conspiracy to murder are:
Hiring a hitman
Agreeing to purchase a gun so you can kill a person
Or any actions that indicate an intention to commit murder
Maximum Penalties
The maximum penalty is 25 years imprisonment.
The maximum penalty is reserved for cases that are the most serious. The penalty you will receive will depend on individual circumstances and the nature of your offence. In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties:
Fine
Dismissal Without Conviction
Conditional Release Order (CRO)
Community Correction Order (CCO)
Intensive Correction Order (ICO)
Conviction Without Penalty
Deferral for Rehabilitation
Imprisonment