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Culpable homicide is a categorisation of certain offences in variousjurisdictions within theCommonwealth of Nations which involves thehomicide (illegal killing of a person) either with or without anintention to kill depending upon how a particular jurisdiction has defined the offence. Unusually for thoselegal systems which have originated or been influenced during rule by theUnited Kingdom, the name of the offence associates withScots law rather thanEnglish law.
"Culpable homicide" offences are found in the following jurisdictions; the description of the local version of the offence is given where available:
In Canada, "culpable homicide" is not itself an offence. Rather, the term is used in theCriminal Code to classify all killings of persons as either culpable or not culpable homicide.[1] There are three types of culpable homicide:murder,manslaughter andinfanticide. Killings classified as not culpable arejustifiable killings; thus the term is used to define the criminal intent ormens rea of a killing. Non-culpable homicide includes those committed in self-defence.[2]
The offences include causing death whether by intention or not.
ThePakistan Penal Code (PPC) in earlier form included the offence of "culpable homicide" for acts of homicide resulting from the infliction of intentional harm upon a person:
§299 Culpable homicide§301 Culpable homicide by causing death of person other than person whose death was intended
Amendments in recent years have replaced the specific phrase "culpable homicide" within those sections and introduced terms fromSharia law but it remains in §38 (Persons concerned in criminal act may be guilty of different offences).
The current equivalent sections are:
300. Qatl-e-Amd:
Whoever, with the intention of causing death or with the intention of causingbodily injury to a person, by doing an act which in the ordinary course of natureis likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that his act is so imminentlydangerous that it must in all probability cause death, causes the death of suchperson, is said to commit qatl-e-amd.
301. Causing death of person other than the person whose death was intended:
Where a person, by doing anything which he intends or knows to be likely to
cause death, causes death of any person whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, such an act committed by the offender shall be liable for qatl-i-amd.
Following sections of the PPC deal further with the offence in increased detail.
Culpable homicide is committed where the accused has caused loss of life through wrongful conduct but where there was no intention to kill or "wicked recklessness".[5] It is an offence undercommon law and is roughly equivalent to the offence ofmanslaughter in the law of England and Wales.
While the offence charged remains the same there can be a great variation between individual cases including whether or not the act was voluntary or involuntary:
"Culpable homicide" is: Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.[6]
"Culpable homicide" has been defined (inSouth African law) simply as "the unlawful negligent killing of a human being", the rough equivalent ofinvoluntary manslaughter in Anglo-American law.[7]
