at least evidenced a willingness to accept a substantial risk that the victim might die. The latter was accepted as sufficient mens rea for murder because if a defendant was willing to inflict g.b.h., how was he to know that the victim might not die? An intention to cause g.b.h. In R v Vickers 2 QB 664, the Court of Appeal held that a defendant could be convicted of murder if it was established that he had intended to kill, or had intended grievous bodily harm. The most recent authority on intention is:

Oblique intent covers the situation where the death is foreseen by the defendant as virtually certain, although not desired for its own sake. Direct intent covers the situation where the defendant desired the death. Intention in this context includes direct or oblique intent. The House of Lords in R v Moloney AC 905 held that nothing less than intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm (g.b.h.) would constitute malice aforethought: merely foreseeing the victimвЂ™s death as probable was insufficient. The mens rea for murder is malice aforethought. The year and a day rule was abolished by the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996. Under the QueenвЂ™s peace means that the killing of an enemy in the course of war will not be murder. The killing must be of a living human being. The act (or omission) of the defendant must have been the legal cause of the death of the victim. Certain defences, eg self-defence, will make a killing lawful.

However, death no longer need occur within a year and a day. within a year and a day after the same.вЂќДЇor the purposes of convenience, we can say that murder is the unlawful killing of a human being under the QueenвЂ™s peace with malice aforethought. вЂњMurder is when a man of sound memory, and of the age of discretion, unlawfully killeth within any country of the realm any reasonable creature in rerum natura under the KingвЂ™s peace, with malice aforethought, either expressed by the party or implied by law, so as the party wounded, or hurt, etc. The classic definition of murder is that of Sir Edward Coke ( Institutes of the Laws of England, 1797): Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn WhatsApp HOMICIDE вЂ“ MURDER DEFINITION

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