Talk:Infanticide Act 1938

Cut and paste from Murder in English law

I have cut the following passage from the above article:

In England and Wales, the Infanticide Act 1938 allows jury discretion to return a lesser verdict of infanticide when a mother by act or omission causes the death of her child under 12 months old, but this was due to "the balance of her mind" being "disturbed by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child or by reason of the effect of lactation", as well as verdicts of manslaughter, or guilty but insane.

The passage duplicates the section on partial defences in the above article to a substantial degree. It is not clear to me what the passage says about murder.

The source, if there is one, for the term "jury discretion" is not given. It is not clear to me that the statement that the Act "allows jury discretion to return ... verdicts of manslaughter" is correct, because, as far as I can see, infanticide is a defence to manslaughter as well as murder.

I am under the impression that the reference, in section 1(3) of the Infanticide Act 1938, to the verdict of "guilty but insane" is a reference to the verdict formerly provided for by section 2 of the Trial of Lunatics Act 1883, which has been replaced, due to the amendment of that Act by the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964, by the verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity". Accordingly, it is not clear to me that the reference to a verdict of guilty but insane is correct either. James500 (talk) 03:16, 20 January 2012 (UTC)