Crimes Against The Person Flashcards
Homicide
Homicide is the killing of a person. Murder, manslaughter, defensive homicide, infanticide and child homicide are unlawful homicides.
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another person with malice aforethought, by a person who is of the age of discretion (10 years old and over) and of sound mind. The maximum penalty for murder is imprisonment for life.
Malice aforethought
Malice aforethought is the intention to commit the crime (a guilty mind or ‘mens rea’). For malice aforethought to exist, the accused must have acted voluntarily and have one of the following states of mind.
An intention to kill
An intention to inflict serious injury
Reckless indifference
an intention to assault a person who was trying to make a lawful arrest, which resulted in that person’s death
Reckless indifference
Recklessness is when the accused knows it is probable (highly likely) that their actions will either cause death or a really serious injury to another person, and they are indifferent to this fact. For example, a person would know that deliberately:
high-rise building is highly likely to cause
really serious injury or death
likely to cause really serious injury or death.
Unintentional killing in the process of committing a violent crime
A person who has no intention to kill, but does kill in the process of committing a violent crime (which is punishable by imprisonment of 10 years or more) is liable to be convicted of murder, as though he or she had killed that person intentionally.
Causation
In respect of an offence of murder or manslaughter, the accused’s act must have caused the victim’s death. There must be an unbroken link (referred to as a causal link or causal chain) between the act of the accused and the death of the victim. If the accused shoots the victim and the victim falls down and dies as a result of the gunshot, then there is a clear, unbroken link between the act of the accused and the death of the victim.
If something intervenes to break that link, then the accused may not be found guilty of the murder of the accused, but could be charged with a lesser crime, for example assault.
It is unnecessary for the act of the accused to be the sole cause of death for it to be murder, but the act of the accused must have contributed ‘significantly’ to the death.
Example of a break in the casual link
In respect of an offence of murder or manslaughter, the accused’s act must have caused the victim’s death. There must be an unbroken link (referred to as a causal link or causal chain) between the act of the accused and the death of the victim. If the accused shoots the victim and the victim falls down and dies as a result of the gunshot, then there is a clear, unbroken link between the act of the accused and the death of the victim.
If something intervenes to break that link, then the accused may not be found guilty of the murder of the accused, but could be charged with a lesser crime, for example assault.
It is unnecessary for the act of the accused to be the sole cause of death for it to be murder, but the act of the accused must have contributed ‘significantly’ to the death.
Taking the victim as you find them
It is a general principle that an offender must ‘take their victim as they find them’. If the victim dies as a result of an injury inflicted by the offender because of an unexpected vulnerability (such as recovering from a head operation), the causal link is not broken by the vulnerability. The offender will be seen to have caused the death of the victim and therefore be liable for the charge of murder, if malice aforethought exists, or manslaughter.
Crimes against the person include
murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, culpable driving, rape, assault and kidnapping.
Attempted murder
a person who attempts to commit a serious crime is guilty of the indictable offence of attempting to commit that offence. For example, if a person plans a murder and their attempt fails, then he or she can still be charged with attempted murder.
Survivor of suicide pact who kills deceased party
If two or more people enter into a suicide pact, and one person dies but another does not, the accused (the survivor) can be found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. The court must be satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the act was done or the omission made as part of a suicide pact.
Conspiracy to murder
A person can be charged with conspiracy to murder if he or she agrees with any other person that a course of conduct should be carried out that will involve the commission of murder (or any other offence). To be guilty of a conspiracy offence the accused must have every intention of committing the offence.
Manslaughter
Manslaughter applies in situations where death occurs as the result of criminal negligence or an unlawful and dangerous act.
Criminal negligence
The accused must owe the victim a duty of care. The accused’s actions (or inaction) must fall below the expected standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercise in the same situation, and this lack of care resulted in a person’s death. For example, it would be considered criminal negligence if a parent neglects to get medical treatment for a child when a reasonable person could have
foreseen that without treatment the child was likely to die
Unlawful and dangerous act
The actions of the accused were unlawful and so dangerous that a reasonable person in the same circumstances, would have realised that it was highly likely a person would die or be seriously injured. For example, a person who throws bricks at a passing car to scare the driver may not have known or intended that such action would result in death.
