murder quick revision Flashcards
Define murder - Lord Coke
The unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being and under the or Queen’s Peace with malice aforethought, express or implied.
Reasonable creature in being
Means “a human being”
A living person must be killed.
Example of an omission causing death
R v Gibbins and Proctor - Withheld food from a girl, which starved her to death.
Is a foetus a reasonable creature in being?
No - It has to have an “existence independent. of the mother”
Attorney-General’s Reference (No. 3 of 1994)(1997)
Killing must be unlawful
The killing must be unlawful.
Lawful if:
- in self-defence
- in defence of another
- in the prevention of crime
- if the defendant used reasonable force in the circumstances
Thin skull rule
R v Blaue
“More than a slight or trifling link” - factual causation
R v Kimsey
Queen’s peace
The killing of an enemy in the course of war is not murder.
Jurisdiction of murder
By any British citizen in the world.
Any murders in E+W.
Factual causation
Would the person have died “BUT FOR” the defendant’s act?
Legal causation
Was the defendant’s act more than a minimal cause?
But for test - factual causation
but for test” - R v Pagett
Did anything break the chain of causation?
Were there any intervening acts?
Mens rea
Malice aforethought, express or implied
Express malice aforethought
The intention to kill
Implied malice aforethought
the intention to cause GBH
What is meant by GBH?
Really serious harm - DPP v Smith
R v Mohan
Defined intention
R v Moloney
Foresight of consequence is only evidence from which intention may be inferred.
Transferred malice
D intented to commit a similar crime against a different victim.
e.g. Latimer, Pembliton or Gnango
Principle of coincidence of AR and MR
AR and MR must happen at similar times
e.g. Thabo Meli v R or Church
Continuing act
Fagan - D developed MR at similar time to AR.
