Unity of Murderer and Plurality of Murder Victim; A Juridical-Legal Study

Contrary to participation in crime in which we face some criminals and one victim, sometimes we come to cases in which we face one murderer and some murder victims. In all periods of legislation after the Revolution, good laws and rules have been enacted concerning participation in crime. Concerning unity of the criminal and plurality of victims, however, there is no relevant rule except for the Islamic Penal Code of 1392/2013. When one studies this code, it occurs to his mind that the legislator has distinguished crime against life (articles 383 and 384) and crime against lower than life (article 392) and has adopted two different approaches such as necessity of payment of blood-money in addition to retaliation and priority of the first victim to other victims concerning retaliation. Given the juridical proofs, in crimes against life, the legislator can render a judgment according to which after retaliating the murderer for murdering the first killed person, for other killed persons, blood-money should be received. Also, in serial murder, in addition to mentioning priority of the heirs of the first killed person (like the first victim in crimes against lower than life), the legislator should stipulate a sanction for fulfilling this right (for other killed persons).