Murder: Lesson 22 Flashcards
What is homicide?
- General term used to describe the unlawful killing of a human being
- Different offences charged under homicide depending on mens rea
What type of offence in murder?
- Common law offence
- not defined by any Act of Parliament but by decisions of judges in different cases
What’s the accepted definition of murder?
The unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being and under the Kings or Queens peace with malice aforethought, express or implied
What are the two types of homicide?
- Murder: unlawful killing + intent to kill
- Manslaughter
What are the two types of manslaughter?
- Voluntary: unlawfully kills with intent but can prove special defence
- Involuntary: unlawfully kills without intent to kill or cause GBH
What are the 2 defences for voluntary manslaughter?
- Loss of control
- Diminished responsibility
What is the defence for loss of control?
- Partial defence
- Defendant must have lost control when committing the killing
- Delayed reaction apis allowed but not if it is revenge
- Needs a qualifying trigger
What is the defence diminished responsibility?
Applies when defendants mental functioning was impaired
- Must prove abnormality of mental functioning arose from recognised medical condition
What are the types of voluntary manslaughter?
- Unlawful act: unlawfully kills when committing crime
- Gross negligence: unlawfully kills by a gross negligent act or omission
What is the actus reus of murder?
The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the Queens peace with malice
What needs to be proved ?
- The defendant killed
- A reasonable creature in being
- Under the queens peace
- The killing was unlawful
How to prove defendant killed?
- Can be act or omission
- Act is a positive act like hitting or stabbing victim
- Defendant can’t be guilty unless there act/ omission caused her death (proving the causation)
Key points on reasonable creature
- Means human being
- Killing of a foetus can’t be charged as homicide, child has to have existence ‘independent of the mother’
What happened in R v Poulton 1832?
- Mother strangled her newborn & was charged with murder
- 3 medical men testified that a child can die during delivery so the fact it breathed before its whole body is delivered doesn’t mean it’s alive
- Jury found child wasn’t born alive so therefore mother wasn’t guilty
If S was pregnant and F gives her poison as to kill the baby but the child only dies 2 days after it was born, is he liable for homicide ?
Yes
- Child was independent from mother when it died
What does Queens peace mean?
Killing of an enemy in war isn’t murder
What does unlawful mean?
Killing must be self defence, defence if another or in the prevention of a crime where defendant used reasonable force to make the killing not unlawful
In rage J hit V over the head. She’s taken to hospital and put on life support, 2 months later doctors say she will never recover and turn off the machine. Is this murder?
Yes
- J caused her death with at least the intention to cause GBH
- Turning off her life support doesn’t break chain of causation
