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Law 2160 - Homicide Lecture Notes
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Lecture Notes on Homicide with cases and recommended reading. *Essential!! *Precise!! *For you!!
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HomicideThere are several offences of unlawful homicide:
Murder
Manslaughter
Infanticide
Causing death by dangerous driving
Assisting suicide and entering into suicide pact
We will only cover murder and some of the forms of manslaughter.
Fatal Offences Overview:
Homicide
Homicide Statistic for year ending March 2018
726 homicides (3% increase from previous year)
69% (499) victims were male; 31% (227) female
rder women were Manslaughter
far more likely than men to be killed by partners or ex-partners (33% of
female victims compared with 1% of male victims),
men were more likely than women to be killed by friends or acquaintances (25% of
male victims compared with 7% of female victims).
Involuntary
Children under the age of 1 had Voluntary
the highest rate of homicide (26 per million
population), along with those aged 16 to 24 years (24 per million population).
285 killed by knife/sharp instrument - the highest number since the Home Office
Homicide Index began in 1946.
,Murder
The classic definition of murder is that of Sir Edward Coke (Institutes of the Laws of England,
1797):
Murder is when a man of sound memory, and of the age of discretion, unlawfully killeth within
any county of the realm any reasonable creature in rerum natura under the King's peace, with
malice aforethought.
Actus Reus of Murder: Unlawfully causes the death of another person under the Queen’s
peace.
Who can commit murder? ‘A man of sound memory and of the age of discretion’ – in other
words D must be legally responsible for his actions.
o D is legally responsible for his actions
o Child below the age of 10 cannot be convicted of criminal offence- s50 Children and
Young Persons Act 1933.
Unlawful
If D can rely on the defence of self-defence then he has not killed unlawfully – R v Beckford
[1988] AC 130
Killing
Must be shown that D caused the death of V – law on causation will have to be applied.
Law Reform (Year and One Day Rule) Act, 1996 – the rule that death must occur within 1 year
and 1 day no longer applies. There is no time limit on prosecutions of murder but, if death
occurs after 3 years, permission from the Attorney General must be sought before prosecuting.
o To be guilty of murder the rule used to be that the death must have taken place within
one year and day, this changed in 1966. There is no time limitation. If more than 3
years after killing, have to seek Attorney General’s permission to look into it further.
R v Young [2005] EWCA Crim 2963: Victim was in vegetative state for a period of time and
then died. Prosecution said they were going to charge with murder. D said this would breach
the principle of double jeopardy (cannot be tried for the same offence twice). Court said this
was not the case, the death of the victim meant that they have new facts now, so new offence.
Who can be the Victim? ‘any reasonable creature in rerum natura’
o A human being in being
, o Two issues arise here:
(1) when does life begin and
(2) when does life end?
When does life begin?
Violence to the foetus which causes its death in utero is not murder. It may however
constitute either the offence of:
Child Destruction – Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929.
Criminal Abortion - Offences Against the Person Act 1861, section 58.
The question is whether the child has an existence independent of its mother:
Enoch (1830) 5 C & P 539
R v Poulton (1832) 5 C & P 329
Re A (Children) (Conjoined Twins) [2000] 4 ALL ER 961 – ‘once a severely handicapped child is
born alive … it is entitled to the protection of the criminal law as any other human being.’
o In Re A, it was said that as soon as the child is born, It has the independent existence
from its mother despite its disability.
It would be a breach of the doctor’s care if he/she were not take care of the child.
But see Re J [1990] 3 ALL ER 930 -The test applicable was that of the child's best interests in
those circumstances and that was based on an assessment of the child's quality of life and his
future pain and suffering vis a vis the pain of the life-saving treatment.
o Quality of life versus future paid versus pain of treatment.
o Has to be in the child's best interest
Death after Birth
Violence to the foetus which results in death after birth (i.e. child is born alive but dies due to
the injuries sustained while in the womb) may amount to murder or manslaughter: A-Gs
Reference (no 3 of 1994) [1998] AC 245
o Murder conviction not totally out of possibility with facts like the ones in this case
o Foetus is not a human being (no protection from law of murder)
, o Cannot transfer malice directed at woman to foetus and then child
o If we can show that D intended to kill the child, the foetus it would be murder
o Can show danger to woman and cause of death to the child
When does life end?
The law accepts the medical definition of death – which is ‘brain death’ – Malcherek and Steel
[1981] 1 WLR 690
o We are all dying everyday.
Accelerating Death
Every killing is merely an acceleration of death - R v Dyson [1908] 2 KB 454
The proper question to be submitted to the jury is whether the prisoner accelerated the
child’s death by the injuries which he inflicted. …. For if he did, the fact that the child
was already suffering from meningitis from which it would in any event have died
before long, would afford no answer to the charge of causing its death.
Administering pain relieving drugs which also hasten death: Medical treatment
which hastens death
R v Adams - see Palmer’s case note [1957] Crim LR 365
Devlin J insisted that there was no special defence for doctors. He went on to state:
If life were cut short by weeks or months, it was just as much murder as if it were cut short by
years. … But that does not mean that a doctor aiding the sick or dying has to calculate in
minutes or hours, or perhaps in days or weeks, the effect on a patient’s life of the medicines
which he administers. If the first purpose of medicine – the restoration of health – can no
longer be achieved, there is still much for the doctor to do, and he is entitled to do all
that is proper and necessary to relieve pain and suffering even if measures he takes
may incidentally shorten life.
NB: Other cases seem to suggest that there is a special defence for doctors but Norrie (see
[2006] Crim LR 486 at 500) argues that the lawfulness of the doctor’s actions was resolved in
these cases not as a matter of defence but as a matter of mens rea. For example
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