Feminism and Murder
Today's edition of The Times leads with an interesting piece about criminal defences in murder trials. It is being proposed that the partial defence of provocation should be reframed by repealing the defence of sudden passion and introducing a partial defence for defendants who have been victimised. In a 2004 report the Law Commission framed the issue as follows: We think that the defence as it presently operates is in some respects too broad and in other respects too narrow. We think that it is too broad in that it can apply to conduct by the victim which is blameless or trivial. It is too narrow in that it provides no defence to a person who is subjected to serious actual or threatened violence, who acts in genuine fear for his or her safety (but not under sudden and immediate loss of self-control) and who is not entitled to the full defence of selfdefence (either because the danger is insufficiently imminent or their response is judged to have been excessive). We are satisfi...