Homicide Act 1957

Homicide Act 1957

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make for England and Wales (and for courts-martial wherever sitting) amendments of the law relating to homicide and the trial and punishment of murder, and for Scotland amendments of the law relating to the trial and punishment of murder and attempts to murder.
Citation	5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. 11
Dates
Royal assent	21 March 1957
Commencement	21 March 1957[1]
Status: Amended
Text of the Homicide Act 1957 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Homicide Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. 11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in limited circumstances), reforming the partial defence of provocation, and by introducing the partial defences of diminished responsibility and suicide pact. It further restricted the use of the death penalty for murder to particular enumerated circumstances, under the rubrique of capital murder.

Similar provisions to Part I of this Act was enacted for Northern Ireland by Part II of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1966. The Act was highly controversial as a hodgepodge partial abolition, which categorically deemed all murder by firearm or during theft, for instance, punishable by death, whereas murder via poison or during rape would not. Dissatisfaction from both abolitionists and proponents of capital punishment was a key factor in passing the subsequent Abolition of Death Penalty Act of 1965, under the Wilson ministry.^[2] For all non-capital forms of murder, the mandatory punishment would be life imprisonment.