Murder

Generally. 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,
either expressed by the party or implied by law, [so as the party wounded, or hurt, etc die of the wound or hurt, etc
within a year and a day after the same]. Coke (Co 3 Inst 47)

Actus reus. Death. A result crime. Can be committed by omission (Gibbins and Proctor).

Capacity. M’Naghten’s case. Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Homicide Act 1957.

Reasonable creature. Life starts after birth: capable of breathing and wholly expelled (Poulton; Brain; Reeves).
Primitive brain, non functional heart and lung, still reasonable creature. Fetus is a sui generis organism (CP v FTT).

Causation. Some acceleration of death (Dyson). Double effect principle (Airedale NHST v Bland; Nicklinson). Mercy
killing not a defence (Inglis). Can have more than one cause of death (Pagett).

Mens rea. Malice aforethought = intention to cause death or GBH (Cunningham). If killing is not the aim: Woollin,
Nedrick, Matthew and Alleynes (Rule in Woollin = evidence)

Moloney, Hancock and Shankland = Direct intention

Partial defence

Provocation. By words or deeds (Acott), sudden (Duffy per Devlin J) but time lapse not necessarily fatal (Ahluwalia),
can take into account even bad characteristics if those characteristics makes provocation more serious (Camplin;
Morhall). Decrease in self-control irrelevant (Holley).

Loss of self-control. A loss of self-control + Qualifying trigger + Time consideration. Loss of self-control (Dawes: not
loss control, Hatter). Fear of violence (Clegg – after it has passed, not ok to shoot). Justifable sense of being seriously
wronged (Not in Bowyer: committing Burglary). Extremely grave character (Not in Hatter – marriage breakdown).
Revenge is not ok (Ibrams). Sexual infidelity itself cannot be a trigger, but effects can be considered, can be put to
the jury (Clinton).

Diminished responsibility. 3 part test. Part 1 - Recognized medical condition = e.g. depression (Gittens), bipolar
(Inglis), Epilepsy (Bratty), Schizophrenia (Sutcliffe). Part 2 – impair (1) rational (2) understand what he is doing (3)
exercise self-control (Baker; Golds – must be substantive, not more than minimal). Part 3. Explains why.

Intoxication: But for the drink (Wood). Acute toxication not a disease, medical != legal context (Dowds)

Involuntary Manslaughter

Reckless manslaughter. Lidar. Hyam. Goodfellow. Hancock and Shankland (miner on strike; taxi driver on bridge).

Constructive manslaughter. Kennedy #2 1. act not omission (Lowe), 2. Criminally unlawful (Not a tort – Franklin; Nor
a crime with defence: Lamb; Slingsby). 3. Unlawfulness distinct from dangerousness (Andrews). 4. Dangerous in an
objective manner (Church; Contrast M [affray, though renal artery aneurysm not foreseeable] with Dawson[heart
disease not foreseeable]. Newbury and Jones). 5. Need not be towards victim (Mitchell). Mens rea = base crime. No
need foresight of harm.

Property crime is ok (Goodfellow). Suicide: is it foreseeable? (Dhaliwal)

Gross negligence manslaughter. Adomoko. Duty is wide ranging (Willoughby). Can be committed by omission.
Examples: Electricity (Holloway) Driving a car (Andrews) Parents (Gibbins and Proctor) Carer (Stone and Dobinson)
Medical professionals (Adomoko) Contractual (Pittwood) Dangerous activities (Lamb; Evans). Risk to death must be
at the time of alleged negligence (Rudling).

No defence to plead ex turpi causa (Wacker) or contributory negligence (Winter and Winter). Duty of care is a matter
of law (Evans). Risk of negligence is as to death (Adomoko, Singh, Rudling).