Murder

ACTUS REUS

Murder is a common law offence that has derived from case law. This means that there is no legislation and can lead to confusion, as people do not know where they stand. The actus reus and the mens rea of murder were given by Lord Coke in the 17th century and are as follows;

"The unlawful killing of another human being (AR) under the Queen's peace with malice aforethought (MR)."

Death can also occur as a result of an omission (the failure to act). This can happen when the defendant owes a duty to the other person, for example, in R v Gibbins and Proctor, the Ds lived together with the man's daughter. They failed to feed the daughter and she died.

Definition of 'Human being'- Life begins when the foetus is expelled from the mother's body, giving it an independant existence. However, life ends when the brain stem ceases to exist, regardless of whether the person is being kept alive due to artificial means. (See Malcherek and Steel).

MENS REA

The mens rea of murder is 'malice aforethough' which means 'the intention to kill or cause serious bodily harm.'

An example of a case here is R v Cunningham, where D attacked V with a chair by repeatedly hitting him in the head. D claimed that his intention was to seriously harm V, not to kill. However, he was still…