Murder: Actus Reus

[Flash Card 1 of 2]

• .. the unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being and under the King's peace with malice aforethought, express or implied... (Sir Edward Coke)
• three elements: unlawful killing / a reasonable person in being / under the King's peace

Unlawful Killing:

• not justified / not authorised
• omission only liable / under duty to act / failed to do so
• contract / railway worker (Pittwood)
• special relationship / child starvation (Gibbins & Proctor)
• instigating chain of events / squatter (Miller)
• voluntarily taken on / family (Stone & Dobinson)
• public position / policeman (Dytham)

Reasonable Person in Being:

• how categorise life / application of the law
• foetus (AG Ref (no 3 of 1994) 1997)
• life support machine

Under the King's Peace:

• exemption for killing in war

bits of law

Murder: Actus Reus

[Flash Card 2 of 2]

Causation:

• D's guilty act caused V's death / rules of causation applied
• no causation / act is not unlawful / no criminal liability

Factual Causation:

• guilty if consequence / would not have happened / but for D's conduct
• D cyanide mother's drink / she had heart attack before took effect / guilty attempted murder only (White)
• D girlfriend human shield / guilty manslaughter (Pagett)

Legal Causation:

• link between act & consequence / chain of causation must be unbroken
• D's conduct cause of death / more than minimal / not substantial
• contributed can be sufficient / heroin addicts (Cato)
• thin skull rule / general principle / D take V as he finds them
• V's religious beliefs / refused treatment & died / held mental & physical characteristics included / D caused V's death (Blaue)
• novus actus interveniens / new intervening act / can break chain causation
• medical intervention / only if seriously wrong / doctor palpably wrong (Jordan)
• errors made / trying to care for V / may not break the chain of causation (Smith)
• rare complications / not independent of original act / chain causation not broken (Cheshire)
• victim's own act / if foreseeable not break causation (Roberts)
• is victim's own act / ..within the ambit of reasonableness.. (Williams)

bits of law