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) [1]
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[2]
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[3]
(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) an
offence under Article 6A in which a person dies by suicide.[4]
6A Suicide[5]
(1) Suicide
is not an offence.
(2) But
a person commits an offence if they do an act that can, and is intended to, encourage
or assist another person’s suicide or attempted suicide.
(3) The
person commits the offence whether or not –
(a) they
know or can identify the other person; or
(b) the
suicide or attempt happens.
(4) The
person is liable to imprisonment for 14 years.
7 Saving[6]
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.