A Shepherd direction requiring the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of indispensable intermediate facts is unlikely to be required where the Crown does not restrict its circumstantial case to those facts, or where the direction would deprive the jury of consideration of possibilities clearly open on the evidence. The fact that a minority juror feels pressure from the majority does not, of itself, require the trial judge to discharge the jury. A premeditated, planned murder for financial gain may attract a life sentence under s 61(1) without the need to show the crime is of the most serious or most heinous category.
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