Victorian Current Acts

CRIMES ACT 1958 - SECT 6B

    (1)     Where upon the trial of a person for the murder of another person the jury are satisfied that the accused caused or was a party to causing the death of that other person by a wilful act or omission but are satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the act was done or the omission made in pursuance of a suicide pact then the jury shall, notwithstanding that the circumstances were such that but for the provisions of this section they might have returned a verdict of murder, return a verdict of manslaughter in lieu thereof.

S. 6B(1A) inserted by No. 49/1991 s. 119(1)
(Sch. 2 item 5(a)), amended by No. 48/1997
s. 60(1)(Sch. 1 item 5).

    (1A)     Despite section 5, a person convicted of manslaughter under subsection (1) is only liable to level 5 imprisonment (10 years maximum).

S. 6B(2) amended by Nos 9576 s. 11(1), 49/1991 s. 119(1)
(Sch. 2 item 5(b)), 48/1997
s. 60(1)(Sch. 1 item 6(a)(b)).

    (2)     Any person who—

S. 6B(2)(a) amended by No. 10079 s. 8(c).

        (a)     incites any other person to commit suicide and that other person commits or attempts to commit suicide in consequence thereof; or

        (b)     aids or abets any other person in the commission of suicide or in an attempt to commit suicide—

shall be guilty of an indictable offence and liable to level 6 imprisonment (5 years maximum); but if the jury are satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the acts constituting the offence were done pursuant to a suicide pact the jury shall return a verdict of guilty of the indictable offence of being a party to a suicide pact and the convicted person shall be liable to level 6 imprisonment (5 years maximum).

    (3)     The fact that by virtue of this section any person who in pursuance of a suicide pact has killed another person has not been or is not liable to be convicted of murder shall not affect the question of whether the homicide amounted to murder in the case of a third person who is a party to the homicide and is not a party to the suicide pact.

    (4)     For the purposes of this section "suicide pact" means an agreement between two or more persons having for its object the death of all of them whether or not each is to take his own life; but nothing done by a person who enters into a suicide pact shall be treated as done by him in pursuance of the pact unless it is done while he has the settled intention of dying in pursuance of the pact.

S. 7
repealed by No. 9576 s. 11(1).

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No. 6103 s. 8.