lc290 Partial Defences to Murder report - Law Commission

of all those convicted of murder during a three year period as well as access to
the files of most women who are currently serving a life sentence for murder or
have been released on licence. We are indebted to Dr Tamsin Stubbing who has
collated and analysed the information culled from these sources and we present
that information in Appendix D to the report. In addition, in order to ground that
analysis we publish as Appendix E to this report a brief, anonymous account of
each of the cases of women sentenced to life imprisonment for murder whose
Lifer Review and Recall Section files we have seen. For the same purpose we
also publish the anonymous case summaries which Professor Mackay has
annexed to his reports in Appendices A and B. We endeavour to draw out certain
conclusions from this material. We wish to put on record our grateful thanks to
Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, Minister of State at the Home Office, who
agreed that we should have this generous access and to the officials in the Home
Office and at the Lifer Review and Recall Section who were so helpful to us in
accessing this material. We are also grateful to the staff at the Crown Prosecution
Service who gave us assistance in connection with this aspect of the work.
Professor Sanford Kadish, of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote a paper
for us elucidating the operation of U.S.A. Model Penal Code provision on extreme
mental or emotional disturbance. His clear exposition of a very complex area of
law in multiple jurisdictions was invaluable to our deliberations and we are
indebted to him for his help in such a limited time frame. His paper is contained in
appendix F to this report.
History of provocation and diminished responsibility
1.22 One of our consultees suggested that it would be helpful if our report contained a
sociological history of provocation and diminished responsibility. Accordingly, and
in order to assist the reader to place the report in context, we have done so. It is
contained in Appendix G to this report.
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