TJP_FULL_Episode_1635_Tuesday_52626_Tuesday_News_Breakdown_with_the_Fearsome_Foursome.mp3

About this episode

The episode discusses the legal implications of the infamous cannibalism case Regina v. Dudley and Stephens and its relevance to modern criminal law.

On today's episode, we discuss the infamous English cannibalism case of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens and what it teaches about when, if ever, killing to survive can be legally justified. Madeleine walks through the harrowing 1884 shipwreck of the yacht Mignonette, detailing how four sailors were stranded on a flimsy lifeboat with almost no food or water, ultimately killing and eating the 17‑year‑old cabin boy Richard Parker after days of starvation, turtle blood, and even drinking their own urine. The hosts then follow the men back to England, explaining how their own candid depositions about killing and eating Parker triggered murder charges, a sensational trial, and huge public sympathy for the survivors. From there, they unpack the core legal issue—whether “necessity” (kill one to save three) can ever be a defense to homicide—contrasting Lord Bacon’s old dicta suggesting survival killings might be justified with the court’s ultimate ruling that necessity is not a lawful defense to murder. The conversation closes by tying the case to modern criminal law: in the U.S. you may kill in true self‑defense or defense of others, but you cannot invent new necessity defenses after the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Madeleine, James Wilkerson

Topics covered

• cannibalism
• legal justification
• survival
• murder trial
• criminal law

Keywords

• cannibalism
• Dudley and Stephens
• legal defense
• necessity
• murder trial
• survival
• criminal law

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Regina v. Dudley and Stephens

Places: Mignonette

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