Nguyen v R [2016] HCA 17: Excessive Self Defence
Wednesday 4 May 2016 @ 12.19 p.m. | Crime
Today (4 May 2016), the High Court has delivered judgment in the case of Nguyen v R [2016] HCA 17. In a case related to excessive self defence, the High Court held that the Court of Criminal Appeal was correct to quash the sentences imposed by the sentencing judge and re-sentence the appellant as was done.
Background to the Case
The appellant, a drug addict and dealer, was convicted of manslaughter and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after a shootout with plain clothes police, in which the appellant wounded one office, and another was accidentally shot by the injured officer and mortally wounded.
About two weeks before these events, the appellant was the victim of an attempted robbery. The Crown accepted that it could not exclude as a reasonable possibility that the appellant honestly believed that the deceased was someone posing as a police officer who was intent on robbing the appellant. The appellant pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and one count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The appellant was taken to have accepted responsibility for killing the deceased by excessive self-defence on the basis that, by firing at the deceased, he substantially contributed to the ensuing exchange of gunfire where it was reasonably foreseeable that someone in the vicinity of the exchange might be fatally, even if inadvertently, shot.
The appellant was sentenced by a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales to a total effective sentence of nine years and six months' imprisonment.
Appeal to the NSW Criminal Court
The NSW Criminal Court of Appeal held that the trial judge erred in finding that the appellant’s mistaken belief that the police officers were robbers was a mitigating factor in sentencing, because that belief was already implicit in the conviction for manslaughter, rather than murder, and in finding that sentences should be served concurrently because each involved distinct consequences and criminality. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal was satisfied that the sentences were manifestly inadequate. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the sentences and re-sentenced the appellant to a total effective sentence of 17 years and two months' imprisonment.
High Court Appeal
By grant of special leave, the appellant appealed to the High Court. The High Court unanimously dismissed the appeal, holding that it was correct to hold that the sentencing judge erred in her assessment of the objective gravity of the offence of manslaughter and correct to quash the sentences imposed by the sentencing judge and re-sentence the appellant as was done.
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Nguyen v R [2016] HCA 17
