The defendant, in robbing him, pointed his cocked pistol at the cashier. He claimed that he was thinking what to do but had no intention of pressing the trigger, but the gun went off and killed her.
Held: Pointing a loaded pistol at a person with your finger on the trigger, in the course of committing a felony, was clearly an act of violence. The trial judge had directed the jury that if they accepted the facts deposed to by the accused they should find him guilty of murder. The jury convicted the accused of murder and the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeal: ‘The judge was no more under a duty to direct the jury that if the pressing of the trigger was inadvertent the killing was manslaughter, than was the judge in the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Beard [1920] AC 479 under a duty to direct the jury that if the pressure exerted by the appellant in that case voluntarily was only so much as necessary to silence the child and the extra pressure which throttled her was inadvertent and accidental, that the accused there was guilty of manslaughter. We think that the object and scope of this branch of the law is at least this, that he who uses violent measures in the commission of a felony involving personal violence does so at his own risk, and is guilty of murder if those violent measures result even inadvertently in the death of the victim. For this purpose the use of a loaded firearm, in order to frighten the person victimised into submission is a violent measure.’
Judges:
Wrottesley J
Citations:
[1946] 1 KB 74
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Director of Public Prosecutions v Beard HL 1920
The accused raped a girl aged thirteen whilst he was drunk. He placed his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming, but without any intention of injuring her. He caused her death by suffocation, and was convicted of murder. It was argued on his . .
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 – Regina v Derek William Bentley (Deceased) CACD 30-Jul-1998
The defendant had been convicted of murder in 1952, and hung. A court hearing an appeal after many years must apply laws from different eras to different aspects. The law of the offence (of murder) to be applied was that at the time of the offence. . .
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: 20 November 2022; Ref: scu.188590
