Culpable homicide

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Culpable homicide is a specific offence in various jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations which involves the illegal killing of a person either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a particular jurisdiction has defined the offence. Unusually for those legal systems which have originated or been influenced during rule by England or later by the United Kingdom, the name of the offence associates with Scots Law rather than English Law.

Jurisdictions

Culpable homicide offences are found in the following jurisdictions; the description of the local version of the offence is given where available:

Canada

The term is part of the Criminal Code of Canada (sec 222), where all killings of persons are classified as culpable or not culpable homicide. In Canada there are three types of culpable homicide: murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Killings classified as not culpable are justifiable killings; thus the term is used to define the criminal intent or mens rea of a killing.

India

The offences include causing death whether by intention or not.

Culpable Homicide is an offence under s.299 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), defined as :- "Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide."

Culpable Homicide not Amounting to Murder is an offence under s.304 of the Indian Penal Code. It applies to an event where the death is intentional but does not come within the IPC definition of Murder. Accused charged with Culpable homicide will not get bail. It is non-bailable.

Pakistan

The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in earlier form included the offence of culpable homicide for acts of homicide resulting from the infliction of intentional harm upon a person.

s.299 Culpable Homicide

s.301 Culpable Homicide by causing death of person other than person whose death was intended

Amendments in recent years have replaced the specific phrase "culpable homicide" within those sections and introduced terms from Sharia Law but it remains in s.39 (Persons concerned in criminal act may be guilty of different offences).

The current equivalent sections are :-

300. Qatl-e-Amd:

Whoever, with the intention of causing death or with the intention of causing bodily injury to a person, by doing an act which in the ordinary course of nature is likely to cause death, or with-the knowledge that his act is so imminently dangerous that it must in all probability cause death, causes the death of such person, is said to commit qatl-e-amd.

301. Causing death of person other than the person whose death was intended:

Where a person, by doing anything which he intends or knows to be likely to cause death, causes death of any person whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, such an act committed by the offender shall be liable for qatl-i-amd.

Following sections of the PPC deal further with the offence in increased detail.

Scotland

Culpable homicide is committed where the accused has caused loss of life through wrongful conduct, but where there was no intention to kill or 'wicked recklessness'.^[1] It is an offence under Common Law and is roughly equivalent to the offence of manslaughter in English law.

While the offence charged remains the same there can be a great variation between individual cases including whether or not the act was voluntary or involuntary:

• Voluntary culpable homicide is homicide where the mens rea for murder is present but mitigating circumstances reduce the crime to culpable homicide.
• Involuntary culpable homicide is homicide where the mens rea for murder is not present but either the independent mens rea for culpable homicide is present, or the circumstances in which death was caused make it culpable homicide. Involuntary culpable homicide may arise in the context of an unlawful act or a lawful act. The mens rea requirement is different in each case.

The offence has previously been applied to individual defendants but following the collapse of a trial brought against Transco following the deaths of 4 people in a gas explosion in Larkhall in 1999 and other fatal events involving corporate bodies the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007^[2] has introduced a new statutory offence of corporate homicide into Scots Law.

Singapore

Culpable Homicide is defined under s299 of the Penal Code: "Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide". Murder is a subset of Culpable Homicide, and is defined under s300.

Causing death through a rash or negligent act is considered not to amount to Culpable Homicide and is defined under s304A instead.

South Africa

Culpable Homicide has been defined simply^[3] as "the unlawful negligent killing of a human being".

See also

• Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
• Criminal Code of Canada
• Homicide
• Manslaughter
• Murder

References

Footnotes

1. ^ Scottish Government - "Information for Bereaved Families and Friends Following Murder or Culpable Homicide" (ISBN 0-7559-4304-X)
2. ^ http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2007/ukpga_20070019_en_1 Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
3. ^ S v. Naidoo and Others, Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, Case 321/2001

Notations

• Strathclyde University Scots law course
• CanLII - Canadian Legal Information Institute