This case establishes two key principles:

1. An act can amount to an attempt to commit murder even if the act could not in fact have caused death, provided the defendant believed it could and intended to kill.

2. A defendant convicted of attempted murder under section 9 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1851 (on an indictment for murder) may be sentenced in accordance with sections 11–15 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, meaning the statutory maximum (including life penal servitude) applies.

It is therefore a leading authority on both attempt liability and the sentencing framework where an attempted offence is substituted for a charged offence.

The defendant was tried for murdering his mother. She was found dead on her sofa, with a glass of nectar containing about two grains of potassium cyanide nearby. A fatal dose would have required at least five grains. Post-mortem evidence showed she had not ingested any cyanide and had died from syncope or heart failure, not poisoning.

White had purchased cyanide shortly before and made statements indicating he knew its deadly nature and believed even a very small amount could kill. The prosecution argued he had placed the poison in her drink intending to kill her. The jury acquitted of murder but convicted him of attempted murder. He received a sentence of penal servitude for life.

He appealed the conviction and sentence.

1. Whether adding an insufficient, non-fatal amount of poison to the glass could legally amount to an attempt to murder.

2. Whether, when convicted of attempted murder under section 9 of the 1851 Act (on a murder indictment), the court had power to impose the much higher statutory sentence for attempted murder under sections 11–15 of the 1861 Act.

The appeal was dismissed.

1. The evidence was sufficient for the jury to find an intent to murder and that the act amounted to an attempt.

2. The sentencing powers under sections 11–15 of the 1861 Act applied to all attempts to murder, including those substituted under section 9 of the 1851 Act, so a life sentence was lawful.

Attempt liability:

• An attempt occurs where the defendant, with intent to kill, performs an act forming part of a series of acts that would result in the commission of the offence unless interrupted.

• The act does not need to be capable of causing death in fact; what matters is that the defendant intended to kill and believed the act was capable of doing so.

• Placing poison into the glass, even if the dose was sub-fatal, was sufficiently proximate to amount to the beginning of the execution of the crime.

Sentencing:

• The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 forms a comprehensive code for all attempts to murder (sections 11–15).

• After that Act, all attempts to murder fall within those sections, and the statutory maximum applies regardless of whether the conviction is reached directly under the Act or indirectly via section 9 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1851.

• Therefore, the life sentence was permissible.