Children who kill could be convicted of a new, lower category of crime if they can prove they were young for their age, it was proposed today.
The Law Commission suggested the new defence of “developmental immaturity” should be created for under 18s as part of a wider overhaul of murder laws.
If a jury concluded a murderer aged under 18 was mentally abnormal or immature they could return a verdict of second-degree murder, the proposals said.
But Professor Jeremy Horder, the law commissioner behind the proposals, said that the new proposal would only apply to a very small number of defences.
Advertisement
“We are giving the green light for experts to inquire into the background [of a child] and present that to the jury, and see what the jury makes of it,” Mr Horder said.
The report said that offenders aged under 18 commit about 4 per cent of the 850 homicides that occur on average each year.
“Even those who do succeed in persuading the jury of the merits of their claim...will still be convicted of second degree murder, and can be sentenced to anything up to and including life imprisonment”, it added.
Today’s report, first released in draft form last December, also recommended the creation of a “Tony Martin” defence in homicide cases.
It said someone should be able to use a defence that they were acting under duress if they could prove that they killed someone under the threat of death or serious physical harm. Mr Martin
Advertisement
Professor Horder said that if it had been in force at the time, he expected such a defence could have been put before the jury in the case of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who was prosecuted in 2000 for shooting at two burglars who broke in to his isolated farmhouse.
“The jury has to choose between convicting of murder or acquitting on the grounds of self defence,” he said. “This proposal gives them a middle course.”