Homicide – introduction (topic 4)
Topic outline
Murder
Partial defences to murder/ ‘voluntary manslaughter’
Involuntary manslaughter
Introduction
Width of murder/ manslaughter
Law reform: law commission Report, No. 304, Murder, Manslaughter and infanticide,
2006.
Fair labelling
Sentence.
Homicide – murder
Actus reus of murder
Unlawful killing of another person in the Queen’s peace
Result crime
D’s conduct: Killing = causing death.
o Act or omission: R v. Gibbons and Proctor (1918] 13 Cr App R 134 – parents
withheld food from child to whom they had a duty of care.
o Normal rules of causation apply: R v. Adams [1957] Crim LR 365.
Necessary circumstances?
A person
Victims of murder must be a human; foetuses are not yet persons in law
Human life begins at birth
Offences against the person Act 1861, s. 58/ Abortion Act 1967 – protect foetuses
R v. Poulton (1832) 5 C & P 329.
R v. Senior (1832) 1 Mood CC 346.
, Attorney General’s Reference (No.3 of 1994) [1998] AC 245.
o Court refused to convict D of murder as she stabbed X when she was
pregnant only intending to injure her.
o V (X’s baby) dies from the stab injury to X 4 months after being born.
o Would’ve been extending the scope of transferred malice too far.
When does life end?
Re: A (a minor) [1992] 3 Med LR 303
o Law accepts medical definition of death: a person dies once she stops
breathing, the heart stops pumping blood and the brain ceases to function.
R v. Malcherek and Steel [1981] 1 WLR 690
o Death in law is brain death as confirmed in the case of Malcherek and Steel.
o Brain death is an irreversible condition involving the complete non-
functioning of the brain stem which control reflexive functions of the body.
Aierdale NHS Trust v. Bland [1993] AC 789
o Court said someone short of brain death, so in a persistent vegetative state,
like Bland, is still alive & therefore is still a person capable of being
murdered.
Unlawfully and in the Queen’s peace
Public or private defence
o R v. Beckford [1988] AC 130. – self defence.
War and the killing of alien enemies.
Mens rea of murder
An intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm
(‘GBH)
R v. Vickers [1957] 2 QB 664
R v. Cunnighman [1982] AC 566
o D killed V by htting on head with chair; even though there was no intent to
kill D intended to cause GBH and that was sufficient .
R v. Rahman [2008] UKHL 45.
Meaning of intention? Direct/ oblique intention – within mens rea topic
R v. Moloney [1985] AC 905
R v. Woollin [1999] 1 AC 82.
Remember Intention is subjectively assessed
2
Topic outline
Murder
Partial defences to murder/ ‘voluntary manslaughter’
Involuntary manslaughter
Introduction
Width of murder/ manslaughter
Law reform: law commission Report, No. 304, Murder, Manslaughter and infanticide,
2006.
Fair labelling
Sentence.
Homicide – murder
Actus reus of murder
Unlawful killing of another person in the Queen’s peace
Result crime
D’s conduct: Killing = causing death.
o Act or omission: R v. Gibbons and Proctor (1918] 13 Cr App R 134 – parents
withheld food from child to whom they had a duty of care.
o Normal rules of causation apply: R v. Adams [1957] Crim LR 365.
Necessary circumstances?
A person
Victims of murder must be a human; foetuses are not yet persons in law
Human life begins at birth
Offences against the person Act 1861, s. 58/ Abortion Act 1967 – protect foetuses
R v. Poulton (1832) 5 C & P 329.
R v. Senior (1832) 1 Mood CC 346.
, Attorney General’s Reference (No.3 of 1994) [1998] AC 245.
o Court refused to convict D of murder as she stabbed X when she was
pregnant only intending to injure her.
o V (X’s baby) dies from the stab injury to X 4 months after being born.
o Would’ve been extending the scope of transferred malice too far.
When does life end?
Re: A (a minor) [1992] 3 Med LR 303
o Law accepts medical definition of death: a person dies once she stops
breathing, the heart stops pumping blood and the brain ceases to function.
R v. Malcherek and Steel [1981] 1 WLR 690
o Death in law is brain death as confirmed in the case of Malcherek and Steel.
o Brain death is an irreversible condition involving the complete non-
functioning of the brain stem which control reflexive functions of the body.
Aierdale NHS Trust v. Bland [1993] AC 789
o Court said someone short of brain death, so in a persistent vegetative state,
like Bland, is still alive & therefore is still a person capable of being
murdered.
Unlawfully and in the Queen’s peace
Public or private defence
o R v. Beckford [1988] AC 130. – self defence.
War and the killing of alien enemies.
Mens rea of murder
An intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm
(‘GBH)
R v. Vickers [1957] 2 QB 664
R v. Cunnighman [1982] AC 566
o D killed V by htting on head with chair; even though there was no intent to
kill D intended to cause GBH and that was sufficient .
R v. Rahman [2008] UKHL 45.
Meaning of intention? Direct/ oblique intention – within mens rea topic
R v. Moloney [1985] AC 905
R v. Woollin [1999] 1 AC 82.
Remember Intention is subjectively assessed
2
