Lecture notes
LA 104 Murder Notes
- Module
- Criminal Law
- Institution
- The University Of Warwick (UoW)
This is a comprehensive and detailed note on Murder for La 104. *Essential!! *Precise!! * For you!!
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MURDER PUNISHMENT, DEFENCES +(most serious crim offence) REFORM
THE CONTEXT OF KILLING PUNISHMENT
• 2020/21: 600 homicides Mandatory life imprisonment
- small prop of overall crime
Hwvr: high social relevance (taboo) Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965
→ Reflects structural violence in society
→ Relates to inequality in a country Criminal Justice ACT 2003
• Presumptive position: killing wrong
1. Tariff period: Minimum term
• Context affects the way the law works reflecting circs of kill
a. Formally: defences S21 : / yrs / whole life
b. Informally: influencing perceptions of • Decided x Judge (w/ guidelines)
culpability → Must serve min term in full + Parole
----------------------------------------------------------- board decs if released after
SCOPE OF HOMOCIDE 2. Conditional release: put on ‘license’
for life (break cond = prison)
1. Murder
2. Manslaughter (vol/invol) ♦ Typical period: 15 yrs imprisonment
3. Infanticide (under 12 mon) w/out unexceptional circs
4. Offences causing death
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
DEFENCES
= Common law offence (always consider complete before partial)
+ constructive liab O (int to cause GBH
suffices) 1. General
(Except Duress + D of Circumstance)
'The unlawful killing of a human being under
the Queen's peace, with malice 1. Insanity
aforethought express or implied' 2. Intoxication
(modernised from Coke 3 Inst 47.) 3. Necessity
4. Self-defence
AR MR
(Complete acquittal EXCEPT Insanity: ‘not
Conduct Any conduct Voluntary guilty x reason of insanity)
causing
result
• Lack resp due to mental abnormality
(internal/external)
, • Lacked viable choice
Circumstanc V must be a Knowledge
e person 2. Doctors + treatment of terminally ill
patients
Under Knowledge (Specific defence for med professionals)
Queen’s
peace Prescription of pain-relieving drugs to
terminally ill, where docs aware patient’s life
Killing must Lack of expectancy reduced as a side effect.
be unlawful belief in (common + uncontroversial in med context)
lawfulness
ACTUS REUS
Doc satisfies:
Result Death of V Intention to Prescribes drug accelerating death
kill / GBH
MENS REA
Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 NOT intend kill / cause GBH
Medical science advances to show causal link Hwvr Satisfied:
= no req for V’s death to be ‘w/in yr + day’ of Shortening of life is Virtually Certain conseq
D’s conduct of cond + Knowledge of this = oblique intent
If causation can be established = liable
regardless of delay betw og conduct + PROBLEM: solution x court not rely on crim
death of V defences
HWVR S2: restriction R v Dr Bodkins Adams [1957]
Where: Administered lethal dose of strong pain-
a. Delay +3 yrs relieving drugs to ‘ease the passing’ of
b. D already prosecuted for non-fatal O terminally ill patients (incl V)
= Attorney General must consent to M pros Crown: no special def for docs BUT ‘entitled
to do all that is proper + necessary to relieve
----------------------------------------------------------- pain + suffering even if such measures may
incidentally shorten life’
ACTUS REUS
• Principles applied to case: doctrine of
D unlawfully kills another person under the double effect
Queen’s peace = Intentionally causing harmful result (death)
can be morally defensible where it is a side
• Result crime (look at causation) effect of promoting a good end as dominant
- ANY conduct causing death (type aim
irrelevant)
Hwvr - Unclear: if AR/MR being displaced +
• Causal chain betw act + outcome meaning of ‘incidentally shorten life’)
- Not sole but contributing cause
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