A LEADING Liverpool crime law-yer has criticised the Government for a proposed change to homicide law that could allow killers to escape a murder conviction.
Defendants who prove they were motivated by “words and conduct” which left them “seriously wronged” would be convicted of manslaughter and receive a lesser sentence.
The law change was billed as a relief to victims of domestic violence, who could argue the “slow burn” of abuse forced them into killing their tormentor. The proposals will also create a new partial defence of “fear of serious violence”.
But Mark Ellis, a senior partner and crime specialist at James Murray Solicitors, says the propo-sals are worrying, unnecessary and represent “the Government’s continued interference in the judicial system”.
He argued the existing defences of provocation and diminished responsibility already give the courts enough options when sentencing vulnerable people who have gone on to kill abusers.
The Bootle-based solicitor said: “It is for the Crown to prove be-yond reasonable doubt a woman was not suffering from provocation at the time of the killing or for the defence to prove, on a balance of probabilities, she was suffering from an abnormality of the mind.
“Either way, if the defence suc-ceeds and the jury acquit of mur-der, the woman would be automa-tically convicted of man-slaughter, thus avoiding the mandatory life sentence. The fear is these new proposals only serve to increase the ‘grey area’ and add to the con-fusion surrounding murder laws. One cannot help consider whether Parliament needs to tamper with the law in this way.”
The Ministry of Justice said the law would be changed to make it clear someone who discovers their partner is having an affair would not be entitled to argue they had been “seriously wronged”.
Men and women who suffered a “slow burn” of domestic violence over time could also use one of the partial defences under the propo-sals, over-turning current law which requires them to have acted on the spur of the moment.
But Kirwans’ family law legal executive Sarah Naughton-McCall said the proposals could herald a welcome change, adding: “A change in the law is welcome if it accepts domestic abuse can take many forms stopping short of violence but which still make someone’s life unbearable.
“There are flaws, however, in that as abuse can take place over many years, the gathering of evidence to substantiate such a defence can be difficult.”
Julie, who works for Birken-head’s Zero Centre – a domestic violence support unit, welcomed the law change plans.
Julie, who could not give her surname for fear of reprisals from aggrieved partners, said: “In no way do we support the murder of any human being. However, statistics show that the law needs changing in some way.”
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