Murder

• murder is a common law offence meaning it isn't defined by any acts of Parliament but decisions by judges in previous cases.
• Lord Coke's definition of murder: 'murder is the unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being and under the King's peace with malice aforethought express or implied.'
• actus reus of murder;

  • defendant is killed
  • reasonable creature in being
  • under Kings peace
  • killing was unlawful
• an omission or failure to act can make a person liable for murder- R V Gibbons and Proctor.
• reasonable creature in being:

  • a foetus isn't considered a reasonable creature in being (Attorney General Reference no.3)
  • someone who is braindead is also not considered a reasonable creature in being. (R V Malcherek)
• King's Peace- means that the killing didn't happen during a time of war.
• unlawful- if the killing is in self defence then this is not unlawful.
• mens rea for murder;

  • express or implied malice aforethought
• express malice- intention to kill

  implied malice- intention to cause GBH
• a person can be guilty of murder if they didn't intend to kill and only intended to cause GBH -R V Vickers
• maximum sentence to murder is a mandatory life sentence
• direct intent- where defendant intends the results for murder
• oblique intent- where defendant's aim was not the death of the victim
• foresight of consequences:

  • s8 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967;
  • shall not be bound in law to infer that he intended or foresaw a result of his actions by reason only of it being a natural and probable consequence of those actions but
  • shall decide whether he did intend or foresee that result by reference to all the evidence.
• In R V Nedrick:

  the defendant poured paraffin through the letter box of a house to frighten the woman who lived there. A child died in the fire, Court of Appeal suggested juries ask themselves 2 questions;

  • how probable was he consequence which resulted from the defendant's voluntary act?
  • Did the defendant foresee that consequence?
• Court of Appeal also said that members of the jury should be directed that they are not entitled to infer necessary intention unless they feel sure that death or serious injury was a 'virtual certainty' as a result of the defendant's actions and that D appreciated that his was the case.
• Minimum term for mandatory life sentence:

  Criminal Justice Act 2003 laid down certain guidelines which give the following starting point for adult offenders:

  • a whole life term for exceptionally serious cases such as premeditated killings of two or more people, sexual or child murderers
  • thirty years minimum for murders of police or prison officers, murders involving firearms, sexual killings, racial motivated killings
  • fifteen years minimum for murders not falling within the 2 higher categories