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Lecture notes on Fatal Offences Against the Person in Criminal Law
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Lecture notes covering murder, involuntary manslaughter and voluntary manslaughter.
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What is Not Covered in this Unit of Fatal Offences: Statutory offences such as
Corporate manslaughter
Causing death by dangerous driving
Infanticide
Child destruction
Murder:
A common law crime
A mandatory life sentence
There are different levels to this
Can be halved on good behaviour
A result offence
Doesn’t matter how it happened
Can be committed through an act or an omission to act
As per Gibbins and Proctor (1919) 13 Cr App R 134 which was a case of a
child dying from starvation, it was an omission to feed the child so an
omission to act and they were guilty of murder
‘Murder is when a man of sound memory and of age of discretion, unlawfully killeth
within any county of the realm any reasonable creature in reum natura under the
King’s peace, with malice aforethough either expressed by the party, or implied by
the law, so as the party wounded or hurt, and die of the wound, or hurt within a year
and a day after the same’ (3 Cokes Institutes 47)
Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996:
This Act has now been abolished
It used to be that if the person within a year and a day of the act causing the harm
then the person would have been liable
With improved healthcare nowadays the victim is more often alive for longer
It is not an open ended timespan
Now, if the prosecution is brought after 3 years, the Attorney General has to consent
to the prosecution
The definition is modified to ‘murder is when a person of sound mind and old enough
to be criminally responsible, unlawfully causes the death within the jurisdiction of any
human being, excluding times of war with specific direct initention or indirect intention
so as the person dies or is grievously wounded and death is caused’
‘Person of sound mind and old enough to be criminally responsible’ is referred to as a
person with ‘capacity’
AR of Murder:
Cause unlawful death of a human being
Must have capacity and be in jurisdiction
Capacity:
, Not legally responsible for reasons of:
Insanity
Diminished responsibility
Loss of control
Age of criminal responsibility
Under 10 years old children are ‘doli incapax’
This simply means incapable of committing a criminal offence
S50 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933
‘It shall be conclusively presumed that no child under the age of 10 years can
be guilty of an offence
Crime and Disorder Act 1998
S34 saw the abolition of rebuttable presumption that a child is ‘doli incapax’
‘The rebuttable presumption of criminal law that a child aged 10 or over is
incapable of committing an offence is hereby abolished’
Rebuttable presumption was the presumption that people aged 10-14 were
incapable of committing an offence (doli incapax)
After the Bulger case it was abolished
Now the age of criminally responsible is 10 years old
Jurisdiction:
If you are a british citizen then there is jurisdiction over them everywhere
British territory
Ships registered in the UK
Aircraft
Embassy’s
D Must Cause the Unlawful Death of a Human Being:
Cause + unlawful death + a human being = AR of murder
For causation the usual rules apply
There must be an unbroken causal link between the actions of D and the
death
An Unlawful Death:
This is a death that is not justified
In times of war, killing the enemy is lawful as per Adebolajo [2014] EWCA Crim 2779
A member of the armed forces was shot by a member of the public (terrorist)
and he claimed it was because he was at war with them
The judge said it is the status of the victim that matters so if the victim didn’t
know they were at war with them then it is an unlawful death
Acting in self defence makes it lawful
Doctrine of double effect
E.g. if painkillers that shorten the life of a patient are used in palliative care
Courts look at the balance of it relieving their pain and shortening their life,
this means if it is for palliative care then it is no unlawful
There has been arguments that mercy killings, euthanasia and assisted suicide are
justifiable which is why the language used is problematic
, A Human Being:
A foetus cannot be murdered although covered by other statutory offences on the
destruction of a foetus
Infant Life (preservation) Act 1929
You can get a legal abortion up to 24 weeks
AG’s Reference (No.3 of 1994) [1998] A.C. 245 caused some questions leading to
more cases
CP (a child) v First Tier Tribunal (C.I.C.A) [2014] EWCA Civ 1554 (Homicide)
The mother drank heavily while pregnant causing the baby to have serious
illnesses
The child was trying to apply for money for a grant on the basis that there had
been an offence against the person
The court disagreed with the arguments put forward
They said that a foetus is not a separate person and cannot be a victim of
violence
When Does Legal Life Begin:
Poulton (1832) 172 E.R. 997
The whole body was brought alive into the world
The life of a baby begins when it has been fully expelled from the body of the
mother
Enoch (1833) 172 E.R. 1089
There must be an independent circulation in the child, or the child cannot be
considered as alive for this purpose
This was a case about a fork wound in the skull of the baby
Even if it partially expelled and takes a breath it’s not alive
In context this was a time of no contraception, no abortion and the stigma of a child
out of wedlock
Brian (1834) 172 E.R. 1272
It is not essential that it should have breathed, only that it is wholly expelled
and has an independent circulation
Reeves (1839) 9 C & P 25
The umbilical cord need not to have been cut, if it is wholly expelled then it is
alive whether the cord has been cut or not
When Does Legal Life End?
Brain stem death is what is classified as the end of someone’s life
Malcherek and Steel [1981] 1 WLR 690 was a case where the life support
machine was turned off but the courts didn’t accept it as an offence as the
person was brain stem dead which is legally dead
Persistent vegitative state
Airedale NHS Trust v Bland [1993] AC 789 was a case where the person was
in a PVS but wasn’t on life support machine. They applied to the courts to be
able to not prolong his life any longer and they said the withdrawal of
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