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Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th century BC.[1]
The law generally differentiates between levels of criminal culpability based on the murder mens rea, or state of mind. This is particularly true within the law of homicide, where murder requires either the intent to kill – a state of mind called malice, or malice aforethought – or the knowledge that one's actions are likely to result in death; manslaughter, on the other hand, requires a lack of any prior intention to kill or create a deadly situation.
Manslaughter is usually broken down into two distinct categories: voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter; however, this is not the case in all juridictions.[2]
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Voluntary manslaughter occurs either when the defendant kills with malice aforethought (intention to kill or cause serious harm), but there are mitigating circumstances which reduce culpability, or when the defendant kills only with an intent to cause serious bodily harm. Voluntary manslaughter in some jurisdictions is a lesser included offense of murder. The traditional mitigating factor was provocation; however, others have been added in various jurisdictions.
There have been many types of voluntary manslaughter. These have not been differentiated here as they are so closely related or indistinguishable that many US jurisdictions do not differentiate between them.[3] The following are some examples of defenses which may be raised to mitigate murder to voluntary manslaughter:
The Homicide Act 1957 sets out three partial defences that reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter: diminished responsibility, provocation and suicide pact. Sections 52 to 56 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
These changes came into force on 4 October 2010.
This covers diminished mental responsibility for a crime falling short of the requirements of the complete defence of Insanity. Under section 2 of the Homicide Act 1957 there are three requirements for the defendant to raise the defence of diminished responsibility:
Under section 2(2) of the Act it is for the defendant to prove he suffered from such a condition on the balance of probabilities.
Provocation was originally a common law defense to murder, but it was reformed by section 3 of the Homicide Act 1957. There were two limbs to the defence, first the defendant must have actually been provoked, and second the provocation must be such as would have made the reasonable man act as the defendant did. Provocation could come from someone other than the victim[6] and be aimed at someone other than the accused.[7] Further the defense was not defeated by the fact that the defendant induced the provocation.[8]