England’s most senior judge yesterday said juries should be allowed to consider whether a victim’s infidelity was a possible provocation for murder.
The decision by Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge undermined murder law reforms and brought the idea of the crime of passion defence back into the courts.
The last Labour government abolished the defence to murder of provocation – in place since 1957 – and replaced it with a partial defence of “loss of control”.
Under the new law a jury may consider whether loss of self-control has been triggered by a killer’s fear of serious violence on the part of their victim, or if it was because they had a ”justifiable sense of being seriously wronged” – excluding infidelity.
But Lord Judge said that to ignore infidelity could be “unrealistic and carries with it the potential for injustice”. He insisted, though, that it could not be the sole reason for the murder and other “triggers” must be shown.
The Lord Chief Justice made his comments sitting in the Appeal Court with two other judges as he quashed the murder conviction of Jon Clinton and ordered a retrial.
Clinton was sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years in jail last year after a jury was directed not to consider the infidelities of the wife he killed.
He will stay in prison until a new trial is organised. – Daily Mail
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