Report 11 April 2018 South Australian Law Reform Institute The Provoking Operation of Provocation: Stage 2 The South Australian Law Reform Institute was established in December 2010 by agreement between the Attorney-General of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and the Law Society of South Australia. It is based at the Adelaide University Law School. Postal address: SA Law Reform Institute Adelaide Law School University of Adelaide North Terrace Australia 5005 Telephone: (08) 8313 5582 Email: [email protected] Website: http://law.adelaide.edu.au/research/law-reform-institute Publications: SALRI publications, including this Report and the LGBTIQ Reports that preceded it, are available to download free of charge from the SALRI webpage under Publications: Reports and Papers. Suggested citation: David Plater, David Bleby, Megan Lawson, Lucy Line, Amy Teakle, Katherine O’Connell and Kate Fitz-Gibbon, The Provoking Operation of Provocation: Stage 2 (South Australian Law Reform Institute, Adelaide, 2018) Cover Illustration: The cover illustration is from: https://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2016/07/Sickles_homicide.jpg Contents Terms of reference...................................................................................................................................................... vi Participants ................................................................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................................... vi Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................................................... vii Abbreviations and Glossary .................................................................................................................................... viii Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................................... x Summary of Recommendations ............................................................................................................................. xxi Part 1 – Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Background .................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 The Audit Report .......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Consultation Process .................................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Some Notes on Terminology ...................................................................................................................... 5 Part 2 – Balancing Rights and SALRI’s Terms of Reference .......................................................... 7 2.1 Scope and Considerations ............................................................................................................................ 7 Part 3 – The History and Law Relating to Provocation ................................................................. 14 3.1 Brief History and Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 14 3.2 Law in South Australia ............................................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Other Jurisdictions ...................................................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Queensland ................................................................................................................................................... 21 Part 4 – Lindsay and the SA Legislative Review Committee .......................................................... 24 4.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 24 4.2 R v Lindsay..................................................................................................................................................... 24 4.3 First Legislative Committee Review ......................................................................................................... 27 4.4 Second Legislative Review Report ........................................................................................................... 30 Part 5 – Criticisms of the Provocation Defence .............................................................................. 33 5.1 An Overview of the Criticisms of Provocation ..................................................................................... 33 5.2 Complexity of the Law ............................................................................................................................... 34 5.3 Fair Label and Jury’s Role .......................................................................................................................... 36 Part 6 – The Homosexual Advance Defence .................................................................................. 41 6.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 41 6.2 Excluding a Non-Violent Sexual Advance as Provocation .................................................................. 44 Part 7 – Provocation: A Man’s Law? ............................................................................................... 48 7.1 Overview of Gender Bias .......................................................................................................................... 48 Part 8 – Victim Blaming.................................................................................................................. 50 8.1 Overview of Issues...................................................................................................................................... 50 8.2 Victim Blaming Law in Victoria ............................................................................................................... 52 iii Part 9 – The Case for Residual Provocation? .................................................................................. 55 9.1 Residual Provocation in Family Violence and Elsewhere .................................................................... 55 Part 10 – Other Provocation Models ............................................................................................... 58 10.1 Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 58 10.2 NSW Model of ‘Extreme Provocation’ ................................................................................................... 58 10.3 English Model: Loss of control ................................................................................................................ 65 Part 11 – Sentencing ........................................................................................................................ 70 11.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 70 11.2 The mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder .................................................................. 72 11.3 Mandatory Minimum Non-parole Periods for Murder and Manslaughter in South Australia ....... 78 11.4 R v Hallcroft ................................................................................................................................................... 80 11.5 The Effect of the Provisions if Provocation is no Longer a Partial Defence to Murder ................ 84 R v Simpson, Lovell and Grosser (2008) ..................................................................................................... 85 R v Kelleher (2010) ...................................................................................................................................... 85 R v Narayan (2011) .................................................................................................................................... 85 R v Li (2016) .............................................................................................................................................. 86 11.6 Judicial and Other Criticisms of the Mandatory Minimum Non-parole Period Regime ................ 86 11.7 Further Criticisms Identified by SALRI .................................................................................................. 88 11.8 The Fixing of Non-parole Periods in other Australian Jurisdictions .................................................. 92 Western Australia ..................................................................................................................................... 93 Northern Territory ..................................................................................................................................