Lawyers are fussy about language because it is their job to argue about its implications. The current trial of Lauren Dickason is a case in point, and the jury has a complex task in front of it. | TC_Africa
South African doctor Lauren Dickason is on trial for the murder of her three children in New Zealand. Her defence seeking findings of insanity and infanticide.
The latter may seem like a statement of the obvious, given that Dickason does not deny strangling and smothering Liané, 6, and 2-year-old twins Maya and Karla on 16 September 2021. But the word"infanticide" has a distinct meaning in law. New Zealand's main homicide law is found in the Crimes Act 1961. But the language used reflects a structure that goes back to English law from centuries ago, and is split into two offences: Murder and manslaughter.
These are sometimes referred to as"defences" to murder, but they are only partially so because they lead to the conviction of another offence.
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