2. Homicide Offences Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the four steps for the crime of murder?

A

A defendant commits murder when they:

  1. Cause
  2. The death of another human
  3. Unlawfully
  4. With intent to kill or cause GBH
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2
Q

When can the physical act causing murder be an omission?

A

When the defendant has a duty to care for the victim

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3
Q

Is a fetus a human being for the purposes of murder?

A

No

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4
Q

When does death occur?

A

When the victim is medically brain dead

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5
Q

When does voluntary manslaughter arise?

A

When actus reus and mens rea of murder are made out, but there are partial defences available to the defendant to reduce their liability

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6
Q

What partial defences will reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter?

A
  1. Diminished responsibility
  2. Loss of control
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7
Q

What are the four requirements for diminished responsibility?

A
  1. Defendant had abnormality of mental functioning

and the abnormality must:

  1. Arise from a recognised medical condition
  2. Substantially impair their ability to understand their conduct, form rational judgment, or exercise self-control, and
  3. Provide an explanation for the killing
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8
Q

Who must prove diminished responsibility and to what standard?

A

Defendant, on balance of probabilities

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9
Q

What is loss of control the modern name for?

A

Provocation

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10
Q

What are the three requirements for loss of control?

A
  1. Defendant’s role in killing resulted from loss of self-control
  2. Loss of control was caused by a qualifying trigger, and
  3. A hypothetical person of the defendant’s age and sex might have reacted the same way
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11
Q

What are the two things which amount to a qualifying trigger?

A
  1. Fear of serious violence from victim against defendant or another identified person
  2. Something said or done constituting a circumstance of an extremely grave character which gave defendant a justifiable sense of being wronged
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12
Q

Who must prove loss of control and to what standard?

A

The prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that defendant did not lose control

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13
Q

What is specifically excluded as a qualifying trigger?

A

Discovering sexual infidelity

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14
Q

When does involuntary manslaughter occur and what are the two types?

A

When the mens rea of murder is not made out

  1. Unlawful act manslaughter
  2. Gross negligence manslaughter
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15
Q

When does unlawful act manslaughter arise?

A

Defendant, with the relevant mens rea, commits a dangerous criminal offence, that carries an objective risk to the victim and they die as a result

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16
Q

What are the four requirements of the act for unlawful act manslaughter to apply?

A
  1. D must intend the act
    and the act must be:
  2. Unlawful
  3. Dangerous and
  4. The cause of death (applying factual and legal causation)
17
Q

Can unlawful act manslaughter be committed by omission?

A

No, it requires an unlawful act

18
Q

When does gross negligence manslaughter arise?

A

Defendant does not commit an offence or knowingly take a risk, but breaches a duty in such an extremely negligent way that they are deemed criminally culpable.

There must be a serious and obvious risk of death, whether or not D realises.

19
Q

What are the three elements of gross negligence manslaughter?

A
  1. D owes duty of care to victim, breaches it and it causes death
  2. Serious and obvious risk of death (whether or not D was aware)
  3. Breach was so bad as to give rise to criminal culpability
20
Q

Can gross negligence manslaughter be committed by omission, and why?

A

Yes, because it is based on a duty, and where there is a duty to act, failure to do so will be a breach

21
Q

In establishing whether duty was breached, to what standards are the defendant’s actions compared?

A

Standards of a reasonable person with the same duty of care and applicable expertise