Mian Abdul Ahad
Criminal Law
Task#2
A murder is the unlawful killing of a human being from another human being which
is actionable and has consequences but first we need to measure the actus reus of
murder. There has to be “killing” or someone killed in murder to proceed criminal
charges or criminal trial. This is the first component of criminal homicide. There must
be an unlawful killing with intention. If it was done unintentionally then it is not
blameworthy. Self defence cannot be challenged because one is only protecting his
life and if he kills the person threatening his life in self defence it won’t be considered
intentional killing. The third and final component of a murder is a human victim.
There must be person who has been killed, a foetus cannot be considered a human
victim in the womb so no murder is committed but it can be charged with abortion or
child destruction but an insect or an animal or any other thing cannot be used to make
a murder case. There has to be a human victim who has lost his life in the incident.
In a criminal homicide the murder can be intentional or it can be unintentional. In the
case of intentional manslaughter there can be a number of reasons for the murder but
none of them can be excused, all of the intentional murders are crimes and you’ll have
to serve some prison time as punishment for the murder. These reasons can be a
personal grudge, a fight that got escalated or even revenge. Involuntary manslaughter
can be performed in only one scenario that is self-defence. For example, if I have
been attacked by a group of people being armed in a bank and if they hit me on the
head or anywhere else, and I feel threatened and if I feel that my life is in danger
because of this group, I can attack these people only for my own safety and defence.
This act is not punishable and is called involuntary manslaughter.
In criminal law there are two types of offences. One is fatal offence and other is non-
fatal offence. The non-fatal offences include common assault i.e. assault and battery,
false imprisonment and rape. All three of them are non-fatal offences or in other
words a person cannot lose his life if he is a victim of these crimes. These crimes are
not as serious as fatal offences but they are also punishable. The maximum
punishment for rape is life imprisonment, false imprisonment has the maximum
punishment for 7 years jail time and the maximum punishment for common battery is
6 months jail time and/or a fine depending upon the severity. The nature of all of
these offences are that they cannot take a man’s life and are still considered criminal
violations and there are serious consequences for them.
Inchoate offences are the offences which are not complete offences. They are
incomplete offences or include preliminary criminal conduct. There are several types
of inchoate offences, all of which are very important in criminal law because all of
them have their own complexities and different rulings for different circumstances.
The main and most important is attempt to commit a crime but for some reason the
crime did not happen and there must be a substantial step towards the planning of the
crime, only thinking of doing a crime is not attempt, but if there is planning or any
other substantial step, it becomes an inchoate crime. The second one is solicitation,
where one party encourages another party to commit a crime for their own satisfaction
or own purpose. If a person A is found encouraging C to murder B or if he is found
requesting him with the intent of B’s murder it becomes an inchoate offence. The
third and last main type of inchoate offence is conspiracy. If two parties come at an
agreement to commit a crime such as murder but one member of the party goes to buy
a gun for the murder, it becomes an over act because it is a tangible step taken toward
carrying out the planned murder. Even if the murder never takes place, buying of the
gun shows that conspiracy was actively progressing.
Assistance in a crime is a very serious offence. If a person is found assisting another
person in a crime or found helping him in any way or form such as by providing him a
murder weapon he is liable and can be charged under section 44 of the Serious Crime
Act 2007, this form of conduct is also called incitement. Encouraging another person
or a party to commit a crime like robbery with the intent of that robbery is also an
offence but it is an inchoate offence which was briefly discussed above. This is called
solicitation and can be charged according to the section 45 of the Serious Crime Act
2007.
Specific and general defences are two different types of defences in criminal trials.
Specific defence mainly focuses on the allegations or the charges made by the
prosecution. For example, in a specific defence the defence lawyer tries his best to
disprove the allegations made by the prosecution lawyer by providing facts and
figures in the form of evidence and by proving it in court that the allegation made is
fake and invalid. General defence is quite the opposite of specific defence, the
defence lawyer makes excuses to justify the allegations made by the prosecution. For
example, the defence lawyer can defend the client by challenging the sanity of the
defendant or can say that the client was only defending his self and he is not
responsible for his self-defence. These are broader legal justification while specific
defence target the particular accusation and question its validity.
Self-defence rule is very important in criminal law. There are some provisions
regarding self-defence in the United Kingdom because it is a very serious matter.
Above all it includes involuntary manslaughter. The first provision in the legislature is
in the Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 which states that ‘(1) A person may
use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in
effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of
persons unlawfully at large.’ The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 has also
set out some basic provisions regarding the self-defence rule. It takes into
consideration that whether the self defence was necessary or not and was the force
used by the defendant was reasonable or was it more than needed. The last and most
important rule of self-defence is that a person cannot resist an arrest as self-defence
since resisting an arrest is unlawful and a person can be arrested by the police if they
find any substance on him or find him making an offence or if they have an arrest
warrant.
