Judge proposes merger of murder and manslaughter into one crime

A HIGH COURT judge wants the crimes of murder and manslaughter to be merged into a single crime of unlawful homicide in order to reduce the length of costly murder trials.

The presiding judge of the Central Criminal Court, Justice Paul Carney, has argued that such a change would make contested murder trials “almost a thing of the past”.

“There would be no reason why there should not be a plea of guilty in nearly every case,” he said, addressing law students at University College Galway last night.