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The mens rea of murder is malice aforethought, which has been interpreted by the courts as meaning intention to kill (express malice) or intention to cause GBH (implied malice). A murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.
Murder is a common law offence and was defined by Lord Coke in 1797 as an “unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being under the Queen’s peace, with malice aforethought, express or implied”. That definition is still what defines murder today.
In law, a reasonable person, reasonable man, or the man on the Clapham omnibus, [1] is a hypothetical person whose character and care conduct, under any common set of facts, is decided through reasoning of good practice or policy.
‘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 fore-thought.’ The victim’s nationality and location is irrelevant to whether they are in the Queen’s peace.
For the purposes of convenience, we can say that murder is the unlawful killing of a human being under the Queen’s peace with malice aforethought. However, death no longer need occur within a year and a day. ACTUS REUS. 1. UNLAWFUL KILLING. The killing must be unlawful. Certain defences, eg self-defence, will make a killing lawful.
Murder is defined, at common law rather than by statute, as the unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being under the King or Queen's peace with malice aforethought express or implied.
Preview text. Law on Murder Lord Coke’s definition- ‘Murder is the unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being and under the King’s (or Queen’s) Peace with malice aforethought, express or implied The Actus reus of murder then is that the defendant killed a reasonable creature in being under the King or Queen’s peace’. not ...
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