murder

• Define murder?


  defined by lord Coke as the unlawful killing of a reasonable person under the queens peace with malice aforethought.
• Step 1 -what is killing? give cases 


  -the killing can be carried out by either an act or an omission. R v pittwood, R v Gibbins & Proctor R v Stone V Dobinson R V Dytham R v Santana-Bermudez
• Step 2- Causation? give cases?


  1)would the V's death still have happened BUT FOR D's conduct? R v Pagett /white. 2)Was D's conduct the operative and substantial cause V's death? R v smith 1945. I.e significant R v chesire 1991. Thin skull rule - R v Dear/ blaue. was there an intervening act- Jordan, R v Roberts and R v williams, R v pagett.
• step 3- unlawful? give cases 


  -killing must be unlawful- R v martin 2002- use of uncessary and unreasonable force is therefore unlawful.
• step 4-under the queens peace? give cases


  DPP v Clegg- shows that if a war has been declared by parliament then a country is not under the queens peace.
• step 5-Reasonable creature in being? cases 


  Ag ref no 3 of 1994(AG 3/94)- shows that life begins when a baby is fully expelled from the womb. R v Malcherek - shows that life ends the brain stem is dead. Airedale NHS v Bland - even when somebody is in a permanetly vegetative state they are still considered to be a reasonable creature in being.
• Step 6- Malice aforethought, expressed. cases


  -express malice is when D intends to kill the V, this can be direct or oblique. Direct intention- D aims to achieve death R v mohan. oblique intention- death is a virtual certainty of D's conduct and D realises R v woolin. If the evidence shows that the death was a virtual certainty and D realised this the jury can find indirect intent as in Matthews and Alleyne
• malice aforethought- implied- cases?


  implied means D intends to cause GBH as in Vickers, and this can be direct or oblique intention. GBH defined DPP v smith as really serious harm.
• cause must be a substantial cause of death, but need not be the sole or main cause of death
• laws on euthanasia- cases?


  its is still murder- R v lamb. R v Malcherek and steel 1981 and R v inglis 2011