This project will investigate where the line between homicide pursuant to section 237 and manslaughter pursuant to section 245, cf. section 246 regarding intent can be drafted. This project will focus on the situation where a person takes another persons life by using violence. It will also be examined how the courts assess what the accused has intended. To fulfill this purpose relevant sources such as legislation, case law and literature will be analyzed and discussed.
In the first and second section of this project, the relevant legal provisions will be explained and analyzed to give a fundamental knowledge of the subject of matter, after which the different types of intent will be described in the third section of this project. This project will only be focussing on the Danish Criminal Law with a special focus on section 237 and section 245, cf. section 246.
In the fourth and fifth section relevant case law will be explained and analyzed. The results of the judgements will be compared and discussed. It has been shown that the difference between the two sections is that there is intent to violence as well as intent to death in homicide according to section 237 in the Danish Criminal Law, where there is only intent to violence in manslaughter according to section 245, cf. section 246. That means that if the offender had the intent to kill the victim he will be judged according to section 237 which can result in imprisonment from 5 years to lifetime. But if the offender only had intent to violence and not to death, he can be judged according to section 245, cf. section 246.
It is also shown that the courts still find it difficult to prove however the offender had intent to violence as well as death or if he only had intent to violence. It is also difficult to specify which factors the court attaches importance to, as this is a concrete assessment of each case. However, there is a repetition in which factors are emphasized in court such as how many times the victim was hit, if the victim got hit with an object and whether the victim showed any signs of total defenselessness.
In the sixth and final section, we have reached a conclusion on our purpose with this project.