2. Homicide Offences Flashcards
What are the four steps for the crime of murder?
A defendant commits murder when they:
- Cause
- The death of another human
- Unlawfully
- With intent to kill or cause GBH
When can the physical act causing murder be an omission?
When the defendant has a duty to care for the victim
Is a fetus a human being for the purposes of murder?
No
When does death occur?
When the victim is medically brain dead
When does voluntary manslaughter arise?
When actus reus and mens rea of murder are made out, but there are partial defences available to the defendant to reduce their liability
What partial defences will reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter?
- Diminished responsibility
- Loss of control
What are the four requirements for diminished responsibility?
- Defendant had abnormality of mental functioning
and the abnormality must:
- Arise from a recognised medical condition
- Substantially impair their ability to understand their conduct, form rational judgment, or exercise self-control, and
- Provide an explanation for the killing
Who must prove diminished responsibility and to what standard?
Defendant, on balance of probabilities
What are the three requirements for loss of control?
- Defendant’s role in killing resulted from loss of self-control
- Loss of control was caused by a qualifying trigger, and
- A hypothetical person of the defendant’s age and sex might have reacted the same way in the circumstances
What are the two things which amount to a qualifying trigger?
- Fear of serious violence from victim against defendant or another identified person
- Something said or done constituting a circumstance of an extremely grave character which gave defendant a justifiable sense of being wronged
Who must prove loss of control and to what standard?
The prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that defendant did not lose control
What is specifically excluded as a qualifying trigger?
Discovering sexual infidelity (if sole trigger)
When does involuntary manslaughter occur and what are the two types?
When the mens rea of murder is not made out
- Unlawful act manslaughter
- Gross negligence manslaughter
When does unlawful act manslaughter arise?
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
What are the four requirements of the act for unlawful act manslaughter to apply?
- D must intend the act (not necessarily the manslaughter)
and the act must be: - Unlawful
- Dangerous and
- The cause of death (applying factual and legal causation)
