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Murder Capital offence
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Untill 1957
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Drew Degrees of Murder
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Homicide Act 1957
Capital and Non-Capital Murder |
Death Penality Abolished
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Murder (Abolition of Death Penality) Act 1965
All convicted of murder in England and Wales are punished of Life Imprisonment |
Penality of manslaughter
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At discretion of the judge, with section 5 of the
Offences Against the Person Act Providing that the maximum sentence is life imprisonment |
Actus reus of murder and Manslaughter
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Murder and Manslaugthe share common actus reus
"The unlawful killing of the human being" Distinction is complicated bcause of various forms of manslaughter |
Difference in murder and involuntary Manslaughter
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They differ in terms of mens rea or fault element required.
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Murder and voluntary manslaugther
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They differ not in terms of the mens rea but by the presence of one of the three mitigating defences
1)Provocation 2)Mitigating responsibility and 3)Suicide Pact |
Whole Life Term
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Murder Involved
More than One Murder With Substatial Degree of Planning Or Victim was child and child had been abducted Or Sexual or sadistic motivation to the killing |
Starting Point of 30 Years
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Victim was policeman acting in course of duty
Firearms Or Explosives were used |
Exercising sentencing Discretion
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Having chosen the starting point, the judge is required to fine tune the minimum term to
be served by considering any additional aggravating or mitigating factors. |
Two categories of offence (Manslaughter
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Voluntary Manslaughter
Involuntary Manslaughter |
Sir Edward Coke
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Both murder and manslaughter share a common actus reus, defined by Sir Edward Coke in the seventeenth century
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Distinction between Murder and Manslaughter
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Murder and Involuntary Manslaughter
Murder and Voluntary Manslaughter |
Proof of involuntary manslaughter
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Each of the forms of involuntary manslaughter is satisfied on
proof of a less culpable level of mens rea or fault. |
Manslaughter by an unlawful and dangerous act – ‘constructive manslaughter’.
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Where D unintentionally and unforeseeably kills another
person having committed an unlawful act which was in an objective sense likely to cause some bodily harm. |