{{Infobox court case , name = R. v Kennedy , court =

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

, image = , imagesize = , imagelink = , imagealt = , caption = , full name = R v Kennedy (On appeal from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)) , date decided = 17 October 2007 , citations = UKHL 38
">transcripts = , judges = Lord Bingham, Lord Rodger, Lady Hale, Lord Carswell, Jonathan Mance, Baron Mance, Lord Mance , number of judges = 5 , decision by = , prior actions = , appealed from = , appealed to = , subsequent actions = , related actions = , opinions = Where a person supplies a controlled drug to a fully-informed and responsible adult, who then freely and voluntarily administers the drug and dies as a result, the supplier cannot be liable for manslaughter. , keywords = Manslaughter in English law, Offences Against the Person Act 1861,

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It represents action in line with treaty commitments under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the United Nation ...

, Causation in English law,

Criminal Cases Review Commission The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and bega ...

, italic title = ''R v Kennedy'' [2007] UKHL 38 is a

case on manslaughter in

English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...

. It established that where a person supplies a

controlled drug The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary law, sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the Recreational drug use, recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. While some drugs are illegal to p ...

to a fully informed and responsible adult, who dies as a result of freely and voluntarily administering that drug, the supplier cannot be guilty of manslaughter.

Facts

Simon Kennedy lived in a

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

along with Marco Bosque and Andrew Cody. The latter two men shared a room. On 10 September 1996, Kennedy visited the room shared by Bosque and Cody, where they were drinking. Kennedy was a supplier of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

to Bosque. Bosque asked Kennedy for "a bit f herointo help imsleep". Kennedy prepared a dose of heroin and gave Bosque a

syringe A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger (though in modern syringes, it is actually a piston) that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the inside ...

. Bosque injected himself and returned the syringe to Kennedy, who left. Bosque stopped breathing and an ambulance was called. He was taken to hospital and pronounced

dead on arrival Dead on Scene ('' 'DOS' '') Found dead before first responders get on scene and no medical treatment was given. Dead on arrival (DOA), also dead in the field and brought in dead (BID), are terms which indicate that a patient was found to be ...

due to

asphyxia Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

caused by

pulmonary aspiration Pulmonary aspiration is the entry of material such as pharyngeal secretions, food or drink, or stomach contents from the oropharynx or gastrointestinal tract, into the larynx (voice box) and lower respiratory tract, the portions of the respira ...

of his stomach contents while acutely intoxicated by

opiates An opiate, in classical pharmacology, is a substance derived from opium. In more modern usage, the term ''opioid'' is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain (including antagonist ...

and

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

. Kennedy was arrested and tried at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

on 26 November 1997. He was convicted of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

and supplying a

Class A drug These drugs are known in the UK as ''controlled drugs'', because this is the term by which the act itself refers to them. In more general terms, however, many of these drugs are also controlled by the Medicines Act 1968, there are many other dru ...

to another, and sentenced to five years'

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

. He appealed to the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Courts of England and Wales#Senior Courts of England and Wales, Senior Courts of England and Wal ...

but his appeal was dismissed on 31 July 1998.

Proceedings

However, on 24 February 2004 the

exercised its power under the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to refer Kennedy's conviction for manslaughter back to the Court of Appeal, where it was again dismissed. Kennedy appealed to the House of Lords. The Lords, sitting as an Appellate Committee, overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal and quashed Kennedy's conviction for manslaughter. They noted that a conviction of 'unlawful act' manslaughter (one of the two bases for manslaughter in English law, along with

gross negligence Gross negligence is the "lack of slight diligence or care" or "a conscious, voluntary act or omission in reckless disregard of a legal duty and of the consequences to another party." In some jurisdictions a person injured as a result of gross negl ...

) required the defendant to commit an unlawful act which was a crime and which was a significant cause of the deceased's death. The arguments in the case circled around the third point. It was agreed that Kennedy had committed the crime of supplying a controlled drug to Bosque under the

. The Lords stated, approving the Court of Appeal's ruling in '' R v Dalby''

982 Year 982 ( CMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Emperor Otto II (the Red) assembles an imperial expeditionary force at Tara ...

1 WLR 425, that the act of supplying drugs alone cannot be the foundation of a charge of unlawful act manslaughter as "the supply itself may have caused no harm unless the deceased had subsequently used the drugs in a form and quantity which was dangerous". As such, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

argued that Kennedy had committed the offence of "maliciously administering poison, etc., so as to endanger life or inflict

grievous bodily harm Grievous bodily harm (often abbreviated to GBH) is a term used in English criminal law to describe the severest forms of battery. It refers to two offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. The ...

" contrary to section 23 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 as the 'unlawful act' which was a significant cause of Bosque's death. It was argued that Kennedy had "administered" the heroin to Bosque, reading a wide interpretation of the word 'administer', by encouraging him to do so, such that he was jointly liable for Bosque having injected himself. The Lords rejected this argument, recognising that an informed choice made with free will has historically been considered a ''

novus actus interveniens Novus ("new" in Latin) may refer to: Companies * Novus Biologicals, a biotech company based in Littleton, Colorado, US * Novus Entertainment, a Canadian telecommunications company * Novus International, an animal health and nutrition company * Nov ...

'' in English law and specifically in the context of preparing a heroin injection in '' R v Dias''

002 002, 0O2, O02, OO2, or 002 may refer to: Fiction *002, fictional British 00 Agent *''002 Operazione Luna'', *1965 Italian film *Zero Two, a ''Darling in the Franxx'' character Airports *0O2, Baker Airport *O02, Nervino Airport Astronomy *1996 ...

Cr App R 96; while Kennedy may have "made more likely" that Bosque would inject himself, he did not cause him to do it as Bosque's choice had broken the chain of causation. This meant that he had not committed the crime under section 23, and so there was no basis for the manslaughter charge. Neither was Kennedy an

accomplice Under the English common law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even if they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller ...

as Bosque had not committed an offence in injecting himself with heroin, as the Misuse of Drugs Act did not criminalise the act of injecting or otherwise administering drugs. As such, the only unlawful act committed by Kennedy was not a significant cause of Bosque's death, and no conviction of manslaughter could be reached. Accordingly, Kennedy's conviction for manslaughter was quashed.

External links

Text of judgment on Bailii
2007 in United Kingdom case law House of Lords cases