R v White

Ratio Decidendi

Fapte

White, intending to kill his mother so as to benefit under her will, put potassium cyanide (a lethal poison) into a drink he gave her. She was later found dead, with the partly-drunk glass beside her. The medical evidence, however, established that she had died not from the poison but from heart failure, and that the quantity of cyanide she had actually taken would not have been enough to kill her.

Rezumatul hotărârii

The Court of Criminal Appeal upheld White's acquittal of murder but his conviction for attempted murder. On causation, applying what is now known as the 'but for' test, the prosecution could not show that the poison caused the death: the mother had died of heart failure and would have died when and as she did whether or not White had administered the cyanide, so his act was not a factual cause of her death and he could not be guilty of murder. He was, however, guilty of attempted murder, because he had done an act (administering the poison) that was more than merely preparatory to killing, with the intention to kill; the fact that the attempt failed to cause death did not save him from liability for the attempt. The case is the classic illustration of factual ('but for') causation in criminal law and of the distinction between the completed offence and an attempt.

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