Homicide - murder and partial defences Flashcards
What is homicide?
An umbrella term used which encompasses murder and manslaughter.
What is the actus reus and mens rea for murder?
Actus reus = the unlawful killing of a human being.
Mens rea = malice aforethought / intention to kill or cause GBH
What types of intention apply to the offence of murder?
Direct intention = the death or GBH was the defendant’s aim or purpose.
Indirect/oblique = where death is a virtually certain consequence and the defendant appreciates this.
What are the two types of manslaughter?
Voluntary manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter
How do you determine voluntary manslaughter?
All elements of murder must be satisfied but a partial defence can apply.
The defences are:
- Diminished responsibility
- Loss of control
- Suicide pact
What elements need to be proved for diminished responsibility? (4)
An abnormality of mental functioning;
The abnormality arose from a recognised medical condition;
The abnormality substantially impaired the defendant’s ability to understand the nature of their conduct and/or ability to form a rational judgement and/or exercise self control; and
This provides an explanation for the defendant’s act or omission in doing the killing.
What is considered a recognised medical condition for the purposes of diminished responsibility?
Psychiatric and physical
It must be supported by medical evidence and generally found in accepted classification systems.
Recognised psychiatric conditions = depression, schizophrenia, PTSD, battered person’s disorder, phobic anxiety
Recognised physical conditions = alcohol dependency syndrome, diabetes, epilepsy
When can intoxication be considered for the defence of diminished responsibility?
An individual’s dependency on alcohol as opposed to the voluntary act of consuming alcohol should be considered.
Where an individual does not suffer from alcoholism or alcohol dependency syndrome, their behaviour is not excused.
What is an impairment of the defendant’s ability in respect of diminished responsibility?
Where the defendant fails to understand the nature of their conduct, their ability is impaired when forming a rational judgement or they are unable to exercise self-control.
What elements are required to establish a loss of control?
The defendant must lose self-control
The loss of control must have a qualifying trigger
A person of the defendant’s sex and age, with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint and in the circumstances of the defendant, might have acted in the same or in a similar way as the defendant.
What is considered a loss of control in respect of the defence?
There may be loss of control if the defendant ‘snaps’ or their reaction is a culmination of events.
It does not apply where there is a considered desire for revenge e.g. if they arm themselves, there is evidence of planning.
What are the two qualifying triggers?
Fear trigger
Anger trigger
What is the fear trigger in respect of loss of control?
Where the loss of control was attributable to the defendant’s fear of serious violence from the victim against the defendant or another person.
What is the anger trigger in respect of loss of control?
Where the defendant’s loss of control was attributable to things said and/or done that amounted to circumstances of an extremely grave character and caused the defendant to have a justifiable sense of having been seriously wronged.
Can sexual infidelity be relied upon during a defence of loss of control?
It cannot be relied upon as its own qualifying trigger, but its existence does not prevent a reliance when there are other triggers.
It may also be included in account when assessing an extremely grave character or a justifiable sense of being wronged.
