Abstract
This paper examined the legal and institutional frameworks for addressing homicide cases in Nigeria. It will also made reference to laws of homicide in other jurisdictions like India, Canada and United Kingdom. The author argues that homicide is a relatively rare yet high-impact event. Its consequences are deadly for the victim but also devastating for those intimately connected to the victim and often, the offender too. At the same time, it is an act that captivates many and is the subject of sustained media attention and of numerous popular works of fiction. Homicide is a crime which involves the killing of one human being by another, it is a general term and may refer to a noncriminal act as well as the criminal act of murder. Some homicides are considered justifiable, such as the killing of a person to prevent
the commission of a serious felony or to aid a representative of the law. Other homicides are said to be excusable, such as when a person kills in self-defense. A criminal homicide is one that is not regarded by the applicable criminal code as justifiable or excusable. All legal systems make important distinctions between different types of homicide, and punishments vary greatly according to the killer’s intent, the dangerousness of the killer’s conduct, and the circumstances of the act. This paper analyzed the laws on homicide and discussed the impact of the judiciary as an institution established to adjudicate upon the crime of homicide in Nigeria. The paper adopted a doctrinal approach whereby primary and secondary sources of information were relied upon. That is various legal doctrines, concepts, scholarly
opinions, textbooks and precedents were reviewed and analysed to achieve this research. The paper concludes that the law of homicide in Nigeria is still concervative and anachronistic when compared to countries like Canada that are very progressive in their laws on homicide.