P1 – Apply the Actus Reus and Mens Rea of Murder in Given Situations
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Date Submitted: 02/23/2016 12:14 PM
P1 – Apply the Actus Reus and Mens Rea of Murder in Given Situations
LJ Coke has defined murder to be the unlawful killing of a human being under the Kings (previous), Queens (current) peace, with malice aforethought, which will result in the wounded victim to die of the wound or hurt. Back in the 18th Century, the injured victim had to die “within a year and a day” of their injury. The Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 is now an Act of Parliament that ultimately put an end to the year and a day rule in English law.
The actus reus of murder is the unlawful killing of a human being under the Queens peace.
In this scenario, an unlawful killing of a human being has occurred when Katie pushed Jasmine down a flight of stairs. This means that the actus reus of murder has therefore been satisfied.
Factual causation uses the “but for” test. The “but for” test looks at “but for” the defendants act, the end result would not have occurred. A case example of the “but for” test is R v Pagget. In the case of R v Pagget, the defendant used his pregnant girlfriend as a human shield whilst shooting at armed police officers. The police them shot back and killed the pregnant girlfriend. Pagett was convicted on her manslaughter as she would not have died “but for” him using her as a human shield.
Legal causation uses the substantial cause test. A case example of the substantial cause test is R v Cheshire. . In the case of R v Cheshire (1991), the victim was shot in the thigh and in the stomach. The victim died as a result of rare complications from a tracheotomy that had unfortunately not been spotted by the doctor. Although the victims original wounds were no longer life threatening, the tracheotomy given to improve the victims breathing problems and the rare complication were not seen as independent of the gunshot wounds, which means the chain of causation was therefore not broken and D was the significant cause of death. Katie is therefore the significant...
