(Trinidad and Tobago) The two appellants had been said to have been engaged in a common enterprise to rob a van. The first appellant pointed a pistol at the driver and, according to his account, it went off by accident.
Held: The appeals were rejected. Lord Salmon: ‘In the Court of Appeal, the first argument on behalf of the appellants was that the learned trial judge had erred in his summing up in that he had directed the jury that even if the first appellant, whilst engaged in a robbery which involved violence, had accidentally shot the driver, he would in law be guilty of murder. According to this argument, the learned judge ought to have directed the jury that if the shooting had been accidental, they should return a verdict of manslaughter. The Court of Appeal, rightly, in their Lordships’ opinion, rejected that argument.’
Judges:
Lord Salmon
Citations:
Unreported, 9th April 1979
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Moses v The State PC 29-Jul-1996
(Trinidad and Tobago) The appellant had been convicted under the felony murder rule, where if a victim dies in the course of the defendant committing a felony, the defendant is guilty of murder.
Held: The distinction between felony and murder . .
Cited – Foster and Another v The Queen PC 23-Jan-2007
(Barbados) The appellants had been convicted under the felony murder rule, before its abolition in Barbados in 1994. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.188588