Murder

Question 1

Where is murder contained?

Answer 1

The common law

Question 2

What is the definition of murder?

Answer 2

The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being, and under the Queens peace, with malice aforethought express or implied

Question 3

What is the Actus Reus of murder? (3 elements)

Answer 3

1. Unlawful Killing (Causation), the D has caused the death of victim
2. The victim is a reasonable creature in being
   The act was committed under the Queens peace

Question 4

What is the mens rea of murder?

Answer 4

Malice aforethought express or implied

Question 5

1. Unlawful killing

Answer 5

The D must have factually and legally caused the death of the victim

Question 6

Gibbons and Proctor

Answer 6

A defendant may commit the offence of murder by omission, but only where they are under a duty to act

Question 7

R v Dyson (Causation)

Answer 7

Facts: a baby was suffering with terminal meningitis, the father beat him to death, the father was guilty of murder as his acts hastened the death of his son, the moment of death was accelerated

Question 8

Malcherek and Steel

Answer 8

Facts: D had stabbed wife, she was placed on life support, suffered 2 heart failures and irretrievable brain damage. Doctors switched off life support.

Held: turning off the life support did not break the chain of causation
: the V was already regarded as dead because their brain stem had died

Question 9

Reasonable creature in being:

Answer 9

This generally means the V is a living human being

Question 10

What are the states of the human form that the V will not be regarded as a reasonable creature in being?

Answer 10

Foetus: a foetus in the womb, having no existence independent of its mother is not a reasonable creature in being. It is only a reasonable creature in being when fully expelled from the mother
Brain dead:

Question 11

Rance v Mid-downs health authority (Foetus)

Answer 11

Held: a child is born alive if : ‘if, after birth, it exists as a live child, that is to say, breathing and living by reason of its breathing through its own lungs alone, without deriving any of its living or power of living by or through any connection with it’s mother.’

Question 12

Attorney Generals Reference (No.3 of 1994) (Foetus)

Answer 12

Facts: D stabbed his pregnant girlfriend, the attack caused a premature birth and the baby was born alive but died 4 months later as a result of a premature birth.

Held: ‘an attacker in these circumstances could be criminally liable, however it is likely that he would be charged with manslaughter as opposed to murder’.

Question 13

Malcherek and Steel

Answer 13

Held: it is generally regarded that the test of death is where the brain stem has died

Question 14

Under the Queens Peace

Answer 14

The killing of an enemy under war will not amount to murder

Question 15

What does malice aforethought express mean?

Answer 15

Intention to kill

Intention or indirect intention to do GBH

Question 16

What does implied malice aforethought mean?

Answer 16

Intention (including indirect) to do GBH

Question 17

Vickers

Answer 17

Confirmed that intention to do GBH is sufficient to satisfy murder

Question 18

Cunningham

Answer 18

The HofL confirmed that murder cannot be committed recklessly

Question 19

Woolin

Answer 19

Indirect intention:

A result foreseen as virtually certain is an intense result

Must be proved the D foresaw the CC as virtually certain consequence and continued with his actions anyway