Criminal Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Criminal Law - Essay Example The entire family had retired to sleep and the defendant and his step-father had stayed up together enjoying their drinks. The defendant told his intentions to leave the army to his step-father. The step-father did not take delight in the news and challenged the son with a berating statement. He told his step-son that he could draw, load and shoot a gun faster than the defendant could and asked him to fetch the guns for the challenge to begin. The father challenge to the son was however returned by a shot toward him which the drunk defendant may not have been aware of. The trial convicted the defendant with oblique intent and he appealed to the House of Lords after he was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. It was held that the judge should not have used an expansion explanation for the intent of the defendant and the murder conviction substituted for manslaughter. The argument of intent went further to illustrate, if indeed the death or harm inflicted on the victim was the natural con sequence of the defendants act then the jury could hold it against the defendant that he had the intent to kill his step-father(Lord Bridge). Murder is therefore a crime driven by intent and the intent ought to be specific so that oblique intent is not a direct motive or ground for death. Direct intent implies that death was the desired outcome by the defendant, while oblique intent covers circumstances where the defendant was virtually certain of death but which was not desired for his sake to benefit him. The mens rea that is required to assess a prosecuted person before they are convicted is defined and specified in each case. Mens rea refers to the intent of the mind that makes the defendant guilty of a crime. Murder is therefore an act that is moved to an action of malice aforethought. Malice aforethought is an artistic definition of the term. It is defined in the English Law as a well purposed intention to kill. It is further described as an act whose consequence is in express ion with such threats to life as actual speech, against another, if the defendant produces a lethal weapon that was used on a victim, by certain grievous act the accused intended to cause grievous bodily harm. Death of a victim in the situations as these are attributed to malice aforethought. (Lord Goddard CJ). Killing itself does not add up to murder. For the murder to be concluded, the killing has to involve express malice aforethought or be implied by the law. In a doctrine of constructive malice, it was implied the course of another act considered felonious that involved violence and posed as harmful and threatening to life. It was also implied where the person killed was undertaking a process of the laws such as arresting or imprisoning the accused person or in any other process of the law that is legal. This doctrine was recommended for abolishment by the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment Para 121 of the published Report 1953 (cmd 8932). The section goes further to create the necessary provisions for murder to hold. The section did not affect malice that is implied apart from the doctrine of constructive malice. The case of R v Vickers (1957) 2QB, 664 1957 2 All ER 1957 741. The case was heard and approved by the House of Lords in R v Cunningham 1981 2 All ER 863, 3WLR 263. The accused had been brought in with charges of murder and convicted under section (5) (1)a of the Homicide Act 1957 (repealed). The Criminal Court of Appeal held the Act did not abolish the doctrine of implied malice and therefore conviction