Summary notes for murder and voluntary manslaughter for aqa A-level law
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A-Level Law - Unit Two: Murder, LOC and DM
Summary Notes
Murder Loss of Control Diminished Responsibility
Definition- Definition- Definition-
Common law offence Under s.54(1) of Coroners and Justice Act 2009 Under s.52 Coroners and Justice Act 2009
The unlawful killing of a reasonable person in
being under the Queen’s peace, with malice
aforethought, express or implied (Lord Coke)
Actus Reus- Loss of Self-control- Abnormality of Mental Functioning-
Unlawful- Re A Loss of self-control does not have to be sudden D’s mental functioning must be different from that
Reasonable person- AG Ref no 3 1994 1997 s.54(2) of a reasonable man- Byrne
Act or Omission Can be a time delay- Ballie
Causation Qualifying Trigger s.55- Recognised Medical Condition-
Factual- Pagett Fear trigger, fear of serious violence from D- Sian State the recognised medical condition- English
Legal- Smith (de minimis principle) Anger trigger, D loses control because of thing
NIA- Jordan said or done- zebedee
Thin skull rule- Blaue Exclusions- sexual infidelity- Clinton
Mens Rea The Objective Test- Substantial Impairment-
Express intention to kill or implied intention to Same age and sex of D with normal degree of Does not have to be total- Lloyd
cause GBH (Vickers) tolerance and self restraint would react in a More than trivial- Egan
Foresight of consequence (Woolin)- similar way- Camplain Must impair one of the three gateways:
Was death virtually certain? Decided by the Jury understand the nature of his conduct, form a
Did D know this? Only age and sex should be considered (Holley) rational judgement (Martin) or exercise self-
control (Byrne)
Outcome Outcome- Provides an Explanation-
Mandatory Life Sentence Discretionary life sentence Impairment must be a significant contributory
factor in causing D to kill
Intoxication- voluntary can’t be used as excuse
(Fenton), can be used if it results in brain damage
or becomes involuntary (Wood)
If there is recognised medical condition and
voluntary intoxication then ignore intoxication-
Gittens Outcome- Discretionary life sentence
Transferred Malice- Latimer
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