Murder Model Answer Flashcards
D may be liable for murder defined by (…. ….) as…
Defined by Lord Coke as “the unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the King’s or Queen’s peace with malice aforethought”.
The AR of murder is…
The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the King’s or Queen’s peace.
‘Unlawful’ means that…
The killing must not be justified, for example self defence.
‘Under the king’s or queen’s peace’ means that…
killing in the course of war is not murder
‘A reasonable creature in being’ means…
The death of a human being. This means brain stem death as in MALCHEREK. Killing a foetus isn’t murder as it doesn’t have independence from the mother as in Attorney-General’s reference (no 3 of 1994).
If relevant: AR can be an omission. An omission is a…
Failure to act when there is a duty to act.
The AR must be the…
Factual and legal cause of the death.
D was the factual cause of the death as…
But for D’s actions V, V wouldn’t have died. (PAGETT, WHITE, HUGHES).
D hitting V was probably the legal cause of death as…
It was the operating and substantial cause as it was the significant more than minimal cause of death. (SMITH, PAGETT)
If relevant: A novus actus interveniens can…
Break the chain of causation if it was not reasonably foreseeable.
The MR is…
malice aforethought express or implied, which means either an intention to kill (express) OR an intention to cause GBH (implied).
When deciding whether D intended GBH…
an objective test will be used (DPP v SMITH).
There doesn’t need to be any…
ill-will
If relevant: D can still be convicted even if…
he did not intend to kill (VICKERS) or if he thought he was acting in V’s best interest (INGLIS).
Intention can be specific (direct), defined in MOHAN as…
‘Deciding to bring about a particular consequence’.
