murder and vm

• The AR of murder is an unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the king's peace.
• The MR of murder is malice aforethought (intention to kill and/or intention to cause GBH).
• The legal principle in Re A (conjoined twins) is that a reasonable creature in being must be able to live independently of its mother.
• The legal principle in R v Inglis is that mercy killing is still murder and someone on life support is still a reasonable creature in being.
• The two partial defences of voluntary manslaughter are diminished responsibility and loss of control.
• What are the 4 key issues to address to prove diminished responsibility?

  1. abnormality of mental functioning.

  2. abnormality is caused by a recognised medical condition.

  3. substantially impaired D's responsibility to do one of 3 things.

  4. provides an explanation for D's acts or omissions.
• Loss of control is when the defendant loses control over their actions.
• The qualifying triggers for a LOC are...

  1. Threats of srs violence towards D or another identifiable person (R v Ward).

  2.Things said or done that constitute circumstances of extreme grave character (very high standard of acceptance R v Zebedee).

  3. Sexual infidelity (only if paired with another trigger, R v Clinton).
• What is the legal principle of R v Byrne? There must be an abnormality of mental functioning to prove diminished responsibility
• What is the medical condition in R v Seers? Chronic depression
• What is the medical condition in R v Ahluwalia? Battered woman syndrome
• What is the medical condition in R v Reynolds? Postnatal depression
• What is the medical condition in R v Gray? PTSD
• What is the medical condition in R v Wood? Alcohol dependency syndrome
• What is the legal principle in R v Jewell? LOC does not need to be immediately. There can be a time gap.
• What is the legal principle in R v Ward? A qualifying trigger for LOC must be threats of serious violence towards D or another identifiable person
• What is the legal principle in R v Zebedee? The threshold of what is accepted for things said or done that amount to a qualifying trigger is very high.
• What is the ultimate objective test? Would a person of D's sex and age, with a normal degree of tolerance or self-restraint and in the circumstances of D, react the same way D did?
• What is stated in R v Byrne about abnormality of mental functioning? A state of mind so different from that of an ordinary human being that the reasonable man would term is abnormal.
• What is the legal principle in R v Golds? Substantial impairment does not mean trivial, minimal or total, but something inbetween.
• What is the legal principle in R v Clinton? Sexual infidelity is not a qualifying trigger on its own, but can be when paired with other QTs.
• What is the legal principle in R v Asmelash? (LOC) intoxication cannot be taken into account in the objective test.
• What is the legal principle of Moriarty v Brooks? A wound must break the continuity of the skin.