Murder Flashcards
R v clegg
Solider used excessive force killing a joyrider who failed to stop at checkpoint. Shows the ‘unlawful’ and ‘queens peace’.
Held D’s lack of ‘wicked or evil’ motive did not preclude his actions from being unlawful
R v Malcherek and steel
Doctors switched off life support machines as neither victims were showing any brain stem activity.
Held it confirms ‘brain stems’ as the current medical test for death
R v inglis
D killed her son who was in a PVS following an accident.
Shows ‘death and human being’
Held a disabled life, even a life lived at extremes of disability is not one jotless precious then life of a able bodied person
A-G no.3
A pregnant women was stabbed in abdomen. Baby born but died later due to premature and traumatic birth.
Held murder or Manslaughter can be commuted where child is subsequently born alive, exists independently from mothers and thereafter dies
DPP v Smith
D ordered to stop car containing stolen goods by policeman. V then jumped onto car and killed.
Held guilty of murder and that ‘grevious means no more and no less then really serious’
Mr- intent to cause harm
R v sanders
D gave his wife an a poised apple. Wife took bite and then gave to daughter and daughter died.
R v vickers
D broke into v’s cellar and beat her causing death.
Held where D intends to inflict GBH and v dies this is sufficient to in imply malice aforthought
R v Moloney
D shot and killed his step farther in drunker challange. Held foresight of consequences is only evidence from which intention may be inferred
R v nedrick
D poured parafin through letter box and child died in fire. COA held juries test: how probable was the consequence which resulted from D’s act? Did the D foresee consequence?
R v woolin
The baby off wall. Held juries should use ‘find’ instead of ‘infer’
R v gibbons and procter
D and partner deliberately starved there daughter to death. Held duty owed and omission was deliberate. Failure to feed girl was enough for AR of murder
Definition of murder
The unlawful killing of a human being under the queens peace with malice aforethought either expressed or implied
A03- outdated
Definition derived from cokes definition from the 17th century
A03- level of blameworthiness
If D is guilty of murder judge has no choice but to impose life sentence. Can be argued that there are different levels of blameworthiness. Eg r v cleg life sentence is justifiable but in r v Inglis where d kills her disabled son she still received life sentence.
This was aggravated by the criminal justice act imposing minimum sentences
A03- definition of forsight of consequences is unclear
Moloney- held forsight of consequences was not intention only evident from which intention could be ‘inferred’
Woolin- held intention should be ‘found’ from forsight of consequences
Mathews and Alleyne- coa held there is little difference between risk of evidence and substantive law
