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Criminal Law Keyed to Kennedy
The Queen v. Dudley & Stephens
Citation:
14 Q.B.D. 273 (1884)
ProfessorScott Caron
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
On July 5, 1884, several seamen were cast away in a storm. They had no supply of water and quickly ran out of their small supply of food. On the fourth day of being stuck, they caught a small turtle to eat. They had no other food until the twentieth day, in which the murder occurred. Parker, the youngest and weakest among the men, was killed by the defendants in order to survive. All men fed upon his body and were rescued four days later.
There was a trial, and a special verdict was returned. The jury concluded that it was likely that all of the seamen would have died due to starvation before they were rescued, and that Parker would likely have died before the other three men. However, the jury was unable to reach a decision regarding their culpability and requested that the Queen’s Bench Division rule based on their findings of fact.
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