No criminal charges about the death of the ice hockey player during the game – which this means for sport and the law

The Crown Concity Service (CPS) has announced that no criminal charges will be raised against the Canadian ice hockey player Matt Petgrave in connection with the death of the American player Adam Johnson during a British elite game game in October 2023.

Petgrave was arrested in November 2023 for suspected manslaughter after his skate blade had hit Johnson's neck during the open game between Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steeld. Johnson was taken to the hospital, but died later. Thousands of fans had seen the match in the Utilita Arena of Sheffield.

Petgrave was released and killed seven times in the following 17 months, while the police continued their investigations in South Yorkshire. He had denied the accusations and described the incident as a “tragic accident”.

The decision ends a case that has grasped the ice hockey community. It also has difficult legal questions about violence in sport, levels of responsibility and to what extent criminal law intervene in such incidents.

Deaths in professional sports are rare and criminal investigations are even less common. Johnson's death occurred in an extremely fast and physical game in which players sound on their feet and played them routinely.

Although this was an incident in the workplace, this was not treated by the health and security manager, as this would not be like many fatal incidents in other professions. Instead, the case was examined by Sheffield Council and South Yorkshire Police.

The decision to arrest Petgrave surprised many in sports. It is assumed that all parties have voluntarily worked together with the investigation. It is often overlooked that an arrest can help protect the rights of the examined person in order to ensure the legal representation and to limit the questioning of the police in time.

Nevertheless, many questioned the length of the process, especially the 17-month delay and repeated deposit extensions. For the families of Johnson and Petgrave, uncertainty was long and painful.

What does the law on violence in sport see?

Sport enjoys a special relationship with the law while my research has been examined. It is generally assumed that players have given physical contact “implicit consent”, which would otherwise be illegal – as long as this contact remains within the normal rules of the game.

Ice hockey with its high-speed collisions and culture of the on-Ice fight clearly tests the limits of this consent. But where is the border between a legal part of the game and the criminal behavior?

In order to file a criminal charge, the CPS must be satisfied with two things. First, there is enough evidence to offer a realistic chance of conviction. Secondly, law enforcement would be in the public interest. In this case, none of the threshold was met.

Criminal convictions in sport are extremely rare. In one of the few cases in Great Britain, a leisure ice hockey player, Macauley Stones, received a suspended prison sentence for serious bodily harm during a brawl in 2017. In the process, the judge criticized the “legal vacuum”, which is available in contact sports such as ice hockey.

This gray area affects the test of public interest, since all criminal matters risk complications through the confused declaration of consent. So it is not surprising that the investigation into Johnson's death took so long or that the decision was finally made not to complain about Petgrave.

Security reforms

Johnson's death has already led to promising changes to the security of the ice hockey players. Shortly after the incident, the forensic doctor demanded the neck protection for the players mandatory.

The neck guards, which help prevent violations of skate blades, were immediately enforced by the government forces England Ice Hockey and later taken over by the elite ice hockey league, in which Petgrave and Johnson played. They were also taken over by the International Ice Hockey Federation and the American Hockey League.

This quick reaction may have been surprisingly in a sport that often only slowly took new security measures. The helmets were only mandatory in the North America National Hockey League at the end of the 1970s and were later with Venia.

Read more: Weck call of hockey: Neckwächter should be mandatory after Adam Johnson's death

The tragedy has also combined the ice hockey community worldwide to raise and support awareness of the safety of players. Campaigns such as Adams Angels have collected money for the security initiatives for players, including the provision of Bleed kits for teams across Great Britain.

Although criminal investigations have now been completed, the broader legal questions are anything but enclosed. In this case, the courts do not have the opportunity to examine the role of implicit consent in this case without charges. So no new legal precedent is determined. This task will probably fall into the management bodies of sport.

Some may assume that this case has only a few major effects because ice hockey in Great Britain is a minority sport. However, the legal precedent does not always remain in its original context. A decision on the consent of violence in ice hockey would have in other high contact and martial arts, from rugby to boxing and beyond.

Johnson's death shocked not only ice hockey fans, but also the broader sporting public. And although no criminal proceedings are heard, the conversation about security in high -risk sports is far from over.