Self-defence (Australia)

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Criminal defenses

Part of the common law series
Defenses to crime
Actual innocence
Excuse and exculpation
Defenses that deny the act:
Alibi · Mistaken identity
Frameup · Falsified evidence
False confession · Automatism
Defenses that negate intent:
Infancy · Entrapment
Insanity · Mental disorder
M'Naghten Rules
Diminished responsibility
Mistake of law · Mistake of fact
Intoxication
Defenses that justify the act:
Self defense · Consent
Duress · Necessity
Provocation
See also Criminal Law
Criminal Procedure
Other areas of the common law
Contract law · Tort law · Property law
Wills and trusts · Evidence
Portals: Law · Criminal justice

In the criminal law of Australia self-defence may be a complete defence to criminal liability for causing injury in defence of the person or, to a limited extent, property, or a partial defence to murder if the degree of force used was excessive. For the general theory, see the theory of self-defence.

1 Self-defence
2 Excessive defence
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Self-defence

In the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal in R v Howe (1958) SASR 95, Mason J formulated six propositions on the law of self-defenich were accepted as a model direction on self-defence in murder trials. Thus, a full acquittal was achieved if the jury found that the accused had reasonably believed that he or she was being threatened with death or serious bodily harm and, if so, that the force used was reasonably proportionate to the perceived danger. In Zecevic v Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) (1987) 162 CLR 645 the victim rented a unit from the defendant. The defendant became increasingly annoyed with the victim who kept leaving the security gates of the unit unlocked. After one heated exchange, the defendant was stabbed by the tenant. The defendant, fearing that the tenant was about to get a gun from his car, rushed off and got his shotgun. The defendant returned, and shot and killed the tenant. The majority of the High Court said at 661:

The question to be asked in the end is quite simple. It is whether the accused believed upon reasonable grounds that it was necessary in self-defence to do what he did. If he had that belief and there were reasonable grounds for it, or if the jury is left in reasonable doubt about the matter, then he is entitled to an acquittal. Stated in this form, the question is one of general application and is not limited to cases of homicide.

In Conlon (1993) BFW 709 the accused used a shotgun to repel two trespassers whom he believed were stealing his cannabis plants. His belief was affected by drunkenness and a schizoid personality disorder which were relevant to determine whether the Crown had proved that he had not acted in self defence: specifically whether he believed that it was necessary to do what he did and whether that was a reasonable belief. This question seems advantageous to the defence because it tests whether the belief is reasonable to the accused, not reasonable to the reasonable person.

Under South Australian law, the general defence appears in s15(1) Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) for defending a person's life, and s15A(1) for defending property, subject to a hybrid test, i.e. the defendant honestly believed the threat to be imminent and made an objectively reasonable and proportionate response to the circumstances as the accused subjectively perceived them.

[edit] Excessive defence

The rationale of the defence recognises that the degree of culpability normally associated with murder may be missing. In the High Court case of Viro v The Queen (1978) 141 CLR 88 Aickin J said at 180:

[There is] a real distinction in the degree of culpability of an accused who has killed having formed the requisite intention without any mitigating circumstance, and an accused who, in response to a real or a reasonably apprehended attack, strikes a blow in order to defend himself, but uses force beyond that required by the occasion and thereby kills the attacker.

The defence was first recognised in the common law in R v McKay (1957) VR 560 where a farmer shot and fatally wounded a chicken thief, and confirmed in R v Howe (1958) SASR 95 where Mayo J held at 121-122:

A person who is subjected to a violent and felonious attack and who, in endeavouring, by way of self-defence, to prevent the consummation of that attack by force exercises more force than a reasonable man [sic] would consider necessary in the circumstances, but no more than what he [or she] honestly believed to be necessary in the circumstances, is guilty of manslaughter and not of murder.

This mitigatory defence was abolished in Zecevic v Director of Public Prosecutions which expressed the view that provocation should be the alternative considered. The defence was re-introduced in statutory form in South Australia in 1991, revised in 1997. The Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) s15 now reads:

(2) It is a partial defence to a charge of murder (reducing the offence to manslaughter) if:

(a) the defendant genuinely believed the conduct to which the charge relates to be necessary and reasonable for a defensive purpose; but

(b) the conduct was not, in the circumstances as the defendant genuinely believed them to be, reasonably proportionate to the threat that the defendant genuinely believed to exist.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a person acts for a defensive purpose if the person acts:

(a) in self defence or in defence of another; or

(b) to prevent or terminate the unlawful imprisonment of himself, herself or another.

s15A extends the partial defence to circumstances where the accused had applied excessive force in killing the deceased but had genuinely believed the force to be necessary and reasonable:

(i) to protect property from unlawful appropriation, destruction, damage or interference; or

ii) to prevent criminal trespass to land or premises, or to remove from land or premises a person who is committing a criminal trespass; or

(iii) to make or assist in the lawful arrest of an offender or alleged offender or a person who is unlawfully at large; and the defendant did not intend to cause death (emphasis added).

In 2002, New South Wales reintroduced excessive defence into s421 Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) which reads:

(a) the person uses force that involves the intentional or reckless infliction of death, and

(b) the conduct is not a reasonable response in the circumstances as he or she perceives them, but the person believes the conduct is necessary:

(d) to prevent or terminate the unlawful deprivation of his or her liberty or the liberty of another person.

(2) The person is not criminally responsible for murder but, on a trial for murder, the person is to be found guilty of manslaughter if the person is otherwise criminally responsible for manslaughter.

In November 2005, pursuant to recommendations from the Law Reform Commission for Victoria, the Victorian legislature introduced new laws regarding self defence. Among them, a new offence of defensive homicide was created: where the accused's belief in the need for the force applied in self-defence was unreasonable, s/he may be convicted of an offence less serious than murder.