Murder

• Coke's 1797 definition: "Murder is when a man of sound memory, and the age of discretion, unlawfully kills without any country of the realm any reasonable creature is existence, under the King's peace, with malice aforethought, either expressed by the party or implied by law."
• Legal and factual rules of causation apply.
• The old rule was that the victim must die within a year and day by that was abolished by the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996.
• A reasonable person in being is a human who is born and not dead.
• People on life support are not a reasonable person in being.

  Malchereck.
• Factual causation is the "but for test".

  White.

  Pagett.
• Legal causation is between substantial and minimal.

  Kimsey.

  Benge.
• Intervening acts and third party acts are part of legal causation.

  Jordan.

  Cheshire.
• The mens rea for murder is "malice aforethought" which is either expressed or implied.
• "Malice aforethought" is intention to kill or cause GBH.
• There are three ways of establishing the mens rea:

  1. D intends to cause V's death
  2. D intends to seriously harm V
  3. The death/serious harm of V is almost certainly a result of D's actions.
• Direct intention is a subjective test. Did the defendant set out to achieve that result?

  Moloney.
• There is also the direct intent for GBH.

  Vickers.
• To see if there's indirect intent, we use the Woollin test.
• Objective: Was the death or serious injury a "virtual certainty?"
• Subjective: "Was the defendant aware of the consequences?"
• A "virtual certainty" is a high standard and the natural consequences.

  Hancock and Shankland.