A2 Law Murder Scenario Plan

Murder Scenario

………………………… is likely to be charged with Murder for the death of ………………………… when he/she …………………………

Murder is a common law offence with the sentence being mandatory life. Murder was defined by Lord Coke in 1797 as “The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being, under the Queen’s peace, with malice aforethought, expressed of implied”.

The Actus Reus is the physical element of the offence. Here the Actus Reus points that need to be considered are an unlawful killing, a reasonable creature in being and under the Queen’s peace. There must be an unlawful killing here there was a murder, murder is a result crime the result being death. It was a voluntary act as shown in Hill v Baxter………………………… an omission, an omission is the failiure to act, Judge Stephen Jconfirmed that nobody has a duty to act as he said “If A sees B drowning and is able to save him by holding out his hand. A abstains from doing so in order that B may be drowned. A has committed no offence”. There are 6 exceptions to this, in this offence the relevant exception is………………………… as shown in (apply scenario). The killing must be a reasonable creature in being, this shown as he/she is not brain dead as shown in Malcherek. Furthermore, the victim is not a foetus without an ‘existence separate from the mother’ as shown in A-G reference (No3 of 2004) 1997. This killing did take place under the Queen’s peace.

In causation the Defendants actions must have caused the end consequence. Factual causation uses the ‘But for’ test first seen in R v Pagett. ‘But for’…………………………. Legal causation shows that the Defendant must be more than the ‘minimal’ cause but need not be the substantial cause of the end consequence as shown in Cato or as “a slight or trifling link” in Kimsey. The thin skull rule does apply here as you ‘take your victim as you find him in body and religion’ as shown in Blaue…………………………The chain of causation wasn’t broken by an intervening act. In this scenario there is an intervening act that is ‘sufficiantly serious and separate enough’, this was ………………………… Actus Reus is satisfied.

The Mens Rea is the mental element