Homicide (Jersey)
Law 1986
A LAW to amend the law relating to homicide and for connected purposes
Commencement
[see endnotes]
1 Abolition of capital punishment in the case of persons convicted of
murder
(1) Notwithstanding
any enactment or rule of law to the contrary, on and after the date of the
coming into force of this Law, no person shall suffer death for murder and a
person convicted of murder shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life.
(2) On
sentencing any person convicted of murder to imprisonment for life, the Court
may at the same time declare the period which it recommends as the minimum
period which in its view should elapse before that person is released from
prison on licence.
2 Provision for the trial of murder and manslaughter where the cause
of death happens in Jersey and the death happens outside Jersey
Where any person being criminally
stricken, poisoned, or otherwise hurt in any place in Jersey, shall die of such
stroke, poisoning, or hurt upon the sea, or at any place out of Jersey, every
offence committed in respect of any such case, whether the same shall amount to
the offence of murder or of manslaughter, may be dealt with, inquired of,
determined, and the offender tried and sentenced in Jersey.
3 Persons suffering from diminished responsibility
(1) Where
a person kills or is a party to the killing of another, the person shall not be
convicted of murder if the person was suffering from such abnormality of mind
(whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind
or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially
impaired the person’s mental responsibility for the person’s acts
and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.
(2) On
a charge of murder, it shall be for the defence to prove that the person
charged is by virtue of this Article not liable to be convicted of murder.
(3) A
person who but for this Article would be liable, whether as principal or as
accessory, to be convicted of murder shall be liable instead to be convicted of
manslaughter.
(4) The
fact that one party to a killing is by virtue of this Article not liable to be
convicted of murder shall not affect the question whether the killing amounted
to murder in the case of any other party to it.
4 Provocation
Where on a
charge of murder there is evidence on which the jury can find that the person
charged was provoked (whether by things done or by things said or by both
together) to lose the person’s self-control, the question whether the
provocation was enough to make a reasonable person do as he or she did shall be
left to be determined by the jury; and in determining that question the jury
shall take into account everything both done and said according to the effect
which, in their opinion, it would have on a reasonable person.
5 Time of death[1]
For the purposes of any offence
involving death or suicide, there shall be no presumption of law that, by
reason of the elapsing of any particular period of time between an act or
omission and the date of the death, that act or omission is conclusively proved
not to have caused the death.
6 Restrictions on prosecution for a fatal offence[2]
(1) No
prosecution to which this Article applies shall be instituted without the
consent of the Attorney General.
(2) This
Article applies to a prosecution against a person for a fatal offence,
if –
(a) the injury alleged to have caused the death
was sustained more than 3 years before the death occurred; or
(b) the person has previously been convicted of
an offence in circumstances alleged to be connected with the death.
(3) In
this Article, “fatal offence” means –
(a) murder, manslaughter, infanticide or any
other offence of which one of the elements is causing a person’s death;
or
(b) the offence of aiding, abetting, counselling
or procuring a person’s suicide.
7 Saving[3]
Article 5 of this Law does not
affect the application of any customary rule of law in a case where the act or
omission (or the last of the acts or omissions) which is alleged to have caused
the death occurred before the commencement of that Article.
8 Citation
This Law may be cited as the
Homicide (Jersey) Law 1986.