Homicide Offences Flashcards
What are the 4 requirements for the offence of murder?
- Cause death
- Human being
- Unlawfully
- Intention to kill/cause GBH
Describe the offence of voluntary manslaughter
When D is charged with murder but may successfully plead a partial defence of loss of control or diminished responsibility
What are the 3 requirements to successfully raise a partial defence of diminished responsibility?
- D has abnormality of mental functioning which arose from a recognised medical condition
- This substantially impaired D’s ability to understand nature of their conduct, form a rational judgment, or exercise self-control
- Abnormality provides an explanation for the killing
The burden of proof for diminished responsibility is on the ________, who must prove each element on a _________ __ ____________
defendant, balance of probabilities
What are the 3 requirements to successfully raise a partial defence of loss of control?
- Role in killing must result from loss of self-control (i.e. they couldn’t restrain themselves)
- Caused by a qualifying tigger (there’s 2); and
- A hypothetical person of D’s age/sex might have reacted in the same way
What are the 2 qualifying triggers under the defence of self-control?
- Fear of serious violence
- D has a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged
If a judge is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence that the elements of loss of control are made out, the _________ bear the burden to prove _______ _ __________ _____ that D did not lose control
prosecution, beyond a reasonable doubt
What is involuntary manslaughter?
Unlawful killing of another with a mens rea not amounting to intention
What is unlawful act manslaughter?
A type of involuntary manslaughter where D commits a criminal offence that carries an objective risk to V and they die as a result
What are the four requirements of an “act” to amount to unlawful act manslaughter?
- Intentional
- Unlawful
- Dangerous
- Cause V’s death
What is gross negligence manslaughter?
A type of involuntary manslaughter where D acted in an extremely negligent way (i.e. substantially worse than a reasonable person would do)
What are the 4 requirements for gross negligence manslaughter?
- D owed the V a duty of care
- D breached that duty
- The breach of duty caused the death of V; and
- The breach is serious enough to be characterised as gross negligence and thus a crime
