Regina v. Dudley and Stephens

Thomas Dudley and Edwin Stephens (defendants), along with two other crewmen, were stranded at sea for about 24 days after their yacht sank, with little food or water. After more than a week without food, Dudley and Stephens killed the weakest crewman, Richard Parker, and the surviving three men ate his body until they were rescued four days later. The jury found that the men likely would not have survived without eating Parker, that they reasonably believed death was near, and that Parker likely would have died first anyway -- but the jury could not decide guilt and instead asked the court to rule on culpability based on those facts.