Manslaughter Lawyers
If you’re being charged with manslaughter, don’t make the mistake of navigating the criminal justice system alone.
Call (604) 669-6699 (available 24/7) or email info@penderlitigation.com to chat with an experienced lawyer ASAP.
Manslaughter charges can lead to significant jail time, fines, probation, reputational damage and a criminal record, impeding your ability to travel and secure gainful employment. But manslaughter cases can be won. Pender Litigation is specially equipped to examine the circumstances of your case and launch a tactical defence.
When you retain Pender Litigation, you’ll move forward with an experienced manslaughter lawyer by your side and our entire team of criminal defence lawyers ready to assist the lawyer handling your case. Our team-based approach means your defence is strengthened by the skill and insight of multiple lawyers whose backgrounds include both defending and prosecuting cases.
Our first consultation is privileged and confidential, with no obligation on you.
When we meet, we’ll discuss your case and any related documents you can provide; answer your questions; and provide you with the estimated cost of retaining our services.
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What is Manslaughter?
Manslaughter describes any homicide that is not first- or second-degree murder. Neither deliberate nor premeditated, manslaughter is a murder that happens a result of a criminal act. Criminal negligence causing death and unlawful act manslaughter are the two most common forms of manslaughter. Manslaughter convictions carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
What is homicide?
Homicide is the act of taking another person’s life, directly or indirectly. Homicide is either legally blameworthy or not — culpable or not culpable. Reflecting the alleged offender’s level of responsibility in causing the death, subcategories of culpable homicide include first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Non-culpable homicide, like a killing in self-defence, is not considered a criminal offence.
Manslaughter in the Criminal Code of Canada
Concerning manslaughter, section 234 of the Criminal Code states
234 Culpable homicide that is not murder or infanticide is manslaughter.
Concerning murder reduced to manslaughter, section 232 of the Criminal Code states
232(1) Culpable homicide that otherwise would be murder may be reduced to manslaughter if the person who committed it did so in the heat of passion caused by sudden provocation.
What is provocation
(2) Conduct of the victim that would constitute an indictable offence under this Act that is punishable by five or more years of imprisonment and that is of such a nature as to be sufficient to deprive an ordinary person of the power of self-control is provocation for the purposes of this section, if the accused acted on it on the sudden and before there was time for their passion to cool.
Questions of fact
(3) For the purposes of this section, the questions
- whether the conduct of the victim amounted to provocation under subsection (2), and
- whether the accused was deprived of the power of self-control by the provocation that he alleges he received,
are questions of fact, but no one shall be deemed to have given provocation to another by doing anything that he had a legal right to do, or by doing anything that the accused incited him to do in order to provide the accused with an excuse for causing death or bodily harm to any human being.
Death during illegal arrest
(4) Culpable homicide that otherwise would be murder is not necessarily manslaughter by reason only that it was committed by a person who was being arrested illegally, but the fact that the illegality of the arrest was known to the accused may be evidence of provocation for the purpose of this section.