case law Flashcards
Murray Wright Limited
Can an organisation be guilt of murder.
Because the killing must be done by a human being, an organisation (such as a hospital or food company) cannot be convicted as a principal offender:
R v Myatt
unlawful act
[Before a breach of any Act, regulation or bylaw would be an unlawful act under s 160 for the purposes of culpable homicide] it must be an act likely to do harm to the deceased or to some class of persons of whom he was one.
R v Tomar
R v TOMAR
formulates the issues in the following way:
- Was the deceased threatened by, in fear of or deceived by the defendant?
- If they were, did such threats, fear or deception cause the deceased to do the act that caused their death?
- Was the act a natural consequence of the actions of the defendant, in the sense that reasonable and responsible people in the defendant’s position at the time could reasonably have foreseen the consequences?
- Did these foreseeable actions of the victim contribute in a [significant] way to his death?
R v Horry
Proving death without a body.
Death should be provable by such circumstances renders it morally certain and leaves no ground for reasonable doubt - that the circumstantial evidence should be so congent and compelling as to convince the jury that upon no rational hypothesis other than murder can the facts be accounted for.