Murder

• Definition

  "The unlawful killings of a reasonable creature in being under the King's peace... with malice forethought, express or implied." Lord Coke
• Unlawful killing

  Must be through a voluntary act or omission, without legal justification.
• Reasonable creature in being

  V must have been a human being.
• AG's Reference

  A fetus must be an independent existence of its mother (born)
• R v Malcherik and Steel

  Brain dead - brain stem was already inactive so not murder
• Under the King's peace

  The killing must not be an act of war
• Factual causation

  D must be the factual cause - Rv Pagett. Use but for test (R v White)
• Legal causation

  D must be more than the minimal cause (R v Kimsey) - de minimus test. Or 'significant' cause (R v Cheshire)
• Interviening acts: medical treatment

  > bad medical treatment must be palpable wrong (R v Smith) and wounds cannot be substantial and operating (R v Jordan)
• Intervening acts: V's own act

  Will intervene if acts were daft and unforeseeable (R v Williams)(R v Robert)
• Thin skull rule

  D must take V as they are (R v Blaue)
• Implied malice aforethought

  Intends GBH (R v Vikers)

  Oblique intention (R v Woolin) - virtual certainty of result and D acknowledged
• Express malice aforethought

  D desired to kill V, Director intention (R v Mohan)