(Involuntary Manslaughter and the Conviction of Unlawful Act Manslaughter)

Involuntary manslaughter involves the defendant (D) causing death but not while in possession of the men’s rea for murder (intention to cause GBH or to kill the victim.) Types of involuntary manslaughter include unlawful act, gross negligence and subjective reckless manslaughter. The elements required for unlawful act manslaughter are D must do an unlawful act, the act must be dangerous on an objective test, the act must cause the death and D must have the required men’s rea for the act.

In Franklin, it was decided that a civil wrong is not enough to create liability for unlawful act manslaughter. In Lamb 1967, the victim didn’t fear violence from the defendant as they both believed that a bullet wouldn’t be fired from a revolver, so it was deemed there was no assault, as a result the unlawful act aspect of unlawful act manslaughter wasn’t present. It must be an act, not omission and this was demonstrated in Lowe 1973, where D didn’t take his child to the doctors when he got sick and ended up dying as a result of the illness. His conviction of unlawful ac