Murder

• A man of sound memory and the age of discretion unlawfully kills, within any country of the realm, any reasonable creature in the rerun natura under the kings peace with malice aforethought.
• The unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought
• actus reus of murder

  • unlawfully causing death
  • of a human being
  • under the kings peace
  • in any country of the realm
• Unlawfully causing death

  will be unlawful unless in self-defence or killing enemy soldiers.
• Death occurs when the heart stops beating and or when the brain stem dies.
• Of a human being

  • only human beings can be victims of murder.Existence independent from the mother (rerum natura).
  • Attorney General Reference No.3 1994. D could be convicted of manslaughter as HOL ruled otherwise would be ‘overstraining the doctrine of transferred malice.’
• Under the kings peace

  • when the country is not at war.
• In any country of the realm

  • is D is a British citizen who commits murder abroad, they will have their trial in England.
• Mens Rea of murder

  • the mens Rea of murder is malice aforethought express or implied. Moloney 1985.
• 1. Intention to kill (express malice)
  2. intention to cause grievous bodily harm (implied malice)
• Grievous bodily harm in DPP V SMITH was defined as being ‘really serious harm’ but later in SAUNDERS defined as ‘serious harm’
• Two types of intention

  • direct intent- D’s clear aim and desire to carry out the consequence (Mohan)
  • oblique intent-an unintended consequence but on which was foreseen as being virtually certain consequence of D‘s actions and D knew this.
• Oblique intent large occurs in TWO situations

  1. where D intended one thing- often to scare the victim
  2. D intended to kill one victim- but kills anothe.
• Three special defence

  1. diminished responsibility
  2. loss of control
  3. suicide pact
• Diminished responsibility is a defence set out in s52 The Coroners and Justice Act 2009

  • suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning
  • which arose from a recognised medical condition
  • and substantially impaired D’s ability to… and provides an explanation for D’s actions
• Substantially impaired D’s ability to…

  • understand the nature of his conduct
  • form a rational judgment
  • to exercise self-control
• Defined in Bryne as ‘a state of mind so different from that of the ordinary human being that a reasonable man would term it abnormal’

  Depression- Gittens

  Psychopathy- Byrne

  Alcohol Dependency Syndrome- Wood

  Paranoia- Anthony Martins

  Autism/Aspergers- Jama

  Battered Women’s Syndrom- Ahluwalia

  Epilespy- Campbell

  Post-natal depression- Reynolds

  Schizophrenia- Sutcliffe

  PMT- Smith

  PTSD- Karimi
• Substantial Impairment- s1A

  • explained in Lloyd as ‘substantial does not mean total but it must be more than minimal‘
  • in Brown defined as ‘the abnormality had to be more than minimal or trivial contribution to the killing, but it not need to be the sole cause of the killing‘
• Provides an explanation- s1B

  • ’D’s abnormality need not be the only explanation for his conduct, but it must be a significant factor.’ Lloyd
• D bears both legal and the evidential burden (reverse burden)

  • the civil standard ‘on the balance of probabilities‘ if successful D will be found guilty or not guilty of voluntary manslaughter
• A hospital order under The mental Health act 1983
• Gold held that it was up to the buy to decided if the defendant was substantially impaired at the tone of the murder
• Where the medical evidence is uncontested, the judge should withdraw murder from the jury…Brennan