Mr. Bennetthen moved for leave to bring in a bill "to amend the laws respecting the crime of Manslaughter." Twelve months imprisonment, which was the punishment usually inflicted at the quarter-sessions, upon persons convicted of petty larcenies, was all to which the judges at present could sentence a person found guilty of manslaughter, however cruel might have been the circumstances attending the commission of the latter crime. He was of opinion, that the judges should be empowered to award the punishment of fourteen years transportation in aggravated cases of manslaughter; and the object of his bill was, to give them that power. He referred to the case of the man who was thrown from a window in Charles-street, Drury-lane, and died in consequence of the injuries he received. The parties concerned in that transaction, who were found guilty of manslaughter, could receive no greater punishment than twelve months imprisonment.
Mr. Wynnwas of opinion, that no part of the law required more amendment than that which related to manslaughter. Under the head of manslaughter, cases most widely differing in the degrees of criminality were comprehended. A mere accidental blow in a scuffle, if it occasioned death, was considered manslaughter, and the deliberate killing of an officer in the execution of a warrant, if the instrument was in any degree informal, was no greater crime. These two things were considered in the eye of the law as exactly the same offence, and the judge had no power to inflict a greater punishment with respect to one than another.
§ Leave was given to bring in the bill.