Stabbing in Oslo city centre was attempted homicide

A man was convicted in the Court of Appeal of attempted homicide by knife stabbing in Oslo city centre. The injury would have been fatal if the victim had not quickly received treatment at the trauma department of Ullevål Hospital.

The man appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that he had not acted wilfully and thus could not be convicted of attempted homicide. He contended that the access to quick medical care in Oslo city centre reduced the likelihood of a fatal outcome, even with stabbing wounds as serious as in this case.

The Supreme Court noted that criminal attempted homicide presupposes that the perpetrator understood that the act would most probably lead to death. The perpetrator's understanding does not need to be based on reflection and contemplation but can be due to an immediate acknowledgment of how dangerous the act is. Proximity to medical care is part of the context that may, in principle, be significant for the perpetrator's understanding of the danger. However, for serious stabbing wounds, it will often depend on pure chance whether or not the victim is saved, even when medical help is close. The perpetrator cannot normally know this, and therefore, one can normally not exclude the possibility that the proximity to medical help has influenced the perpetrator's consciousness of the likelihood of a lethal outcome. That was also the case here, and the Court of Appeal's sentence of five and a half years of imprisonment was upheld.

Read the judgment from the Supreme Court (Norwegian only) (PDF)

Justices: Falkanger, Bergh, Høgetveit Berg, Stenvik,Lund

Area of law: Criminal law

Key paragraphs: 17, 20–22