murder and involuntary manslaughter - Law Reform Commission

E(a)Defining “serious injury”Consultation Paper Recommendation3.50 In relation to the term “serious injury” the Commissionconsidered that there were two main options. One option would be to leavethe term undefined in order to preserve the scope of the current rule. TheCommission stated that if this were felt to be unsatisfactory, a second optionwould be to define serious injury as “any bodily injury of such a nature as toendanger or be likely to endanger life, or to cause or be likely to causepermanent injury to health”. The Commission welcomed submissions frompractitioners and other interested persons as to which approach should bepreferred. 40(b)Discussion3.51 Following the consultation process, the Commission is now of theopinion that there is no need to define “serious injury”, because it is a termreadily understood by juries in murder cases.3.52 In its Consultation Paper on Homicide: The Mental Element inMurder the Commission noted that the term “serious injury” could bedefined in three ways. 41 It could be defined by reference to:• the impact or effect of the particular injury on the body, eg “injurywhich causes serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss orimpairment of the mobility of the body as a whole or of the functionof any particular bodily member or organ.” 42• the risk of death it creates.eg(i) serious injury is a “substantial” injury or onewhich creates a “more than merely trivial risk ofdeath”. 43 Such a definition would exclude injuriessuch as the breaking of an arm, which althoughserious, does not normally pose a risk of death.(ii) An alternative formulation would be section300(3) of the Indian Penal Code which states thatculpable homicide is murder if the act causing deathis done with the intention of causing such bodily40414243Law Reform Commission Consultation Paper on Homicide: The Mental Element inMurder (LRC CP 17-2001) at paragraphs 5.39-5.42.Ibid at paragraph 5.21.Section 1(1) of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997.See Charleton Offences Against the Person (Round Hall Press 1992) at paragraph2.35.65