Manslaughter is NOT Murder

I’m amazed by the number of people who have said to me (up till now from just yesterday!!) – “this is why Sri Lanka needs the death penalty – cos the courts don’t give good judgments! Did you hear that the murderer in the Jonsson case got only 12 years jail time and a fine??”

Why do people take what one person says and run instead stopping to find out the facts??

The guy who was found guilty of killing the Jonsson girl in SL was not found guilty of murder. He was found guilty of “culpable homicide” – this is what is more commonly known as manslaughter.

YES, there is a difference.

Prosecution must show intention (=mens rea) to prove murder as opposed to manslaughter. Manslaughter is, in simple terms, where a killing happens, but without intention to kill. Of course this is a subjective element – though generally it’s decided on the principle of “would a reasonable person…” which is meant to minus the subjective element.

However, in manslaughter too there could be intention present – called voluntary manslaughter – where there is a mitigating factor in the relevant facts such as provocation as opposed to involuntary mansalughter where the killing is due to, say, negligence.

In the Jonsson case, the judges found that the prosecution was not successful in showing intention and hence the final judgement of manslaughter – hence the sentence of 12 years + fine. If murder had been found – yes, life/ death sentence. (Please note that nowhere on this blog have I said that the judgment is right/ wrong – this is merely a clarification of the facts as they stand now.)

It’s annoying when you have to point these little things out to people not cos they don’t/ didn’t know (which is fair), but cos they didn’t actually find out the facts of the case or the judgment – and are merely angry cos they heard from someone else that a murderer in SL got only this. One of these days, I swear, I will murder (mens rea present!) one of these fuckwits out of sheer irritation (although I wonder if it would hold up in court if my defence were to plead involuntary manslaughter with the provocation factor being idiot-cy of killed party??)

The Star!! For your viewing pleasure..

While I’m out of sorts, thought I’ll upload some pics of Chico, the most adorable dog in the world, for your viewing pleasure:

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This is a post-script – apparently I’ve violated some intellectual property rules ;o)

The above photographs were taken by Turtle.

Turtle’s Eyes ;o)

Henceforth I shall I write in a bigger font in an effort to preserve Turtle’s eyesight.

I’m sick! ;o( But the skiing was great!!

Back from the skiing which was FANTASTIC!! I loved it! ;o)

But am v.v.v sick with the flu hence am gonna head off to bed and drink Peyawa for the rest of the day!

Poor me!

Skiing, Skiing, SKIING!!

Why oh why have I written two such looooooong posts today?

Cos tmrw I’m going skiing, yes, skiing (!!) and will not be back till Sunday and I would not dream of leaving all you people without good fantastic reading material for that long!

So while you read, I will be skiing (yes, I do enjoy rubbing it in)

PS: Plz pray that I will not break my neck

PPS: You better pray I don’t break my neck and die cos how else would you be able to get such an intimate peek into complete psychosis?

PPPS: For those of you who don’t know, psychosis is a condition defined as “severe mental derangement involving loss of contact with reality.”

PPPPS: Yes, ok, I will shut up now.