Murder

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Created by
Rhianna Foster

Cards (20)

  • Murder is a common law offence which is resulted in mandatory life sentencing (1)
  • Defenition = Lord Coke - Unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the kings peace with malice aforethought, express or implied
  • The killing must be unlawful - the victim dies and the defendent does not have a defence
  • Can happen through an act or an omission
  • Reasonable Creature in Being - AG'S Ref = cannot kill a foetus, must have independent existence from mother.
  • Under the king's Peace - Not at war, not an enemy at war.
  • Defendant must be 10 years old or above and sane.
  • Omissions include: Contractual Duty ( Pittwood ) , Relationship ( Gibbens v Proctor ) , Official Position ( Dytham ) , Voluntary acceptance ( Stone v Dobinson ) , Chain of events ( Miller ).
  • Factual Causation - But for test "but for the defendants actions the consequence wouldn't have happened" - Pagett/White
  • Legal Causation - Must be more than a minimal cause ( substantive and operative cause of the death - Kimsey.
  • Thin Skull rule - You must take the victim as you find them - Blaue.
  • Intervening acts - 3rd party , V's own act ( Roberts ) , V's self neglect/suicide ( Wallace ) , Natural but unpredictable event , Medical treatment ( Jordan ) , Drug cases ( Kennedy ) , Life support ( Malcherek ).
  • Malice aforethought expressed - the intention to kill.
  • Malice aforethought implied - Intention to cause GBH.
  • GBH is really serious harm ( DPP v Smith ).
  • Direct intention - Intention to bring about the prohibited consequence ( Mohan ).
  • Indirect intention - intending to do one thing but another happens ( Woolin ) , Foresight of consequences - the defendant should've foreseen that the conduct has a risk of causing another consequence.
  • Transfer Malice - Intending to commit a crime but happens on a different victim ( Latimer ) , Must be the same crime.
  • Continuing Act - AR is present and at some point the MR is present as well ( Fagan v MPC ).
  • Coincidence of Ar and Mr - must happen at the same time ( Thabo Meli ) , Unless under the transaction theory where the conduct is within a larger sequence of events.