R (Queen) v Dudley and Stephens
Reference : 14 QBD 273, DC
Jurisdiction : England
Main Characters :
- Richard Parker (The Victim-cabin boy 17Y)
- Tom Dudley (The Captain)
- Edwin Stephens (The Crew Member)
- Edmund Brooks (The Seaman)
Facts :
1884, Thomas Dudley was a captain of a yacht, which left England, bound for Sydney, Australia. On July 5th, the ship was struck by a wave and sank near the Cape of Good Hope. The four members barely had time to collect some supplies before escaping onto a lifeboat, though they collected two cans of turnips. They passed almost 2 weeks by eating turnips and spotted turtle. They could hardly save rainy water. They were becoming hopeless and frustrated because they didn’t have any food and they were hangry. At that time, parker was probably in a Coma because he most probably drank sea water. As they had no water, rest of the members were weak and frustrated. In that crucial situation, Dudley said others that one of them should die to save others. Brooks denied his proposal. Again, Dudley said the same thing to Stephens personally pointing out that Parker had no probable chance to survive. Stephens accepted Dudley’s proposal. They killed the minor boy. They survived themselves for 4 days by eating the flesh of Parker. Then, the 3 members were rescued.
Issues :
How did the Court judge ‘the doctrine of necessity‘ and the morality of what they did?
Decisions :
The defendants confessed their crime at trial but they said that they did that for the necessity. Again, defendant side tried to prove that there were no chance to survive of Parker. Parker was weak and in a coma. After killing him, 3 lives were saved.
However, the judges of the Queen’s Bench Division said, ❝…The absolute divorce of the law from morality would be of fatal consequence❞. The judges raised other points as well. Firstly, Dudley could kill himself for saving others’ life if there was any necessity. However, he didn’t do so rather killed Parker. Most importantly, ‘The Doctrine of necessity‘ could not be the defense to a charge of Murder.
Dudley and Stephens were sentenced to capital punishment. Later on, they got some mercy and their punishment were converted into lifetime-imprisonment.
Author :
1. Farah Arifin
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