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MURDER - Coggle Diagram
MURDER
- CRITICISMS OF THE LAW ON MURDER
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No clear definitions of intention, problems with oblique intention
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A human being is dead
A foetus isn't classed as a human being and therefore a person who kills a foetus can't be charged with murder- A-G ref
A person ceases to be a human being when their brain stem ceases to be active irrespective of whether they are being kept alive by artificial means- R v Malcherek and Steel
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R v Nedrick- The judge directed that a jury could infer intention where death or GBH is a virtual certainty of the D's actions
R v Woolin- Changed the wording, so that a jury are entitled to find intention where death or GBH is a virtual certainty of the D's actions. A question of evidence, not law.
R v Matthews and Alleyne- Followed the direction in Woolin and it now seems to be the correct approach to take
- REFORM: LAW COMMISSION REPORT
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Statute Definition
Would change the law from R v Woolin making subjective intention part of law and not just evidence. A person acts intentionally with respect to a result when they act either:
- In order to bring it about
- Knowing that it will be virtually certain to occur
- Knowing that it would be virtually certain to occur if they were to succeed in their purpose of causing some other result
Virtual certainty is intention, lesser foresight is recklessness
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Lord Justice Coke- 'The unlawful killing of a human being in the Queen's peace, with malice aforethought, express or implied'
- ABOLISHED LAW: YEAR AND A DAY RULE'
That is, the rule that, for the purposes of offences involving death and of suicide, an act or omission is conclusively presumed not to have cased a person's death if more than a year and a day elapsed before he died- Lee Clift
R v Jogee- Changed the law on whether you can be prosecuted for murder if 'participated' in the murder but actually didn't carry it out in any way. Following Supreme Court ruling, his charge was dropped to manslaughter