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Establishing Intention to Kill or Necessary Mens Rea in Murder Cases

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Added on  2019-09-18

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This article discusses the legal requirements for establishing intention to kill or necessary mens rea in murder cases, using precedent cases and legal principles. It analyzes a hypothetical scenario of a man accused of killing a 75-year-old manager during a robbery.

Establishing Intention to Kill or Necessary Mens Rea in Murder Cases

   Added on 2019-09-18

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Introduction. The principle area that this problem question is concerned with is toestablish the presence of the intention to kill or necessary mens rea tothe harm and death inflicted upon the 75 year old manager of the localspar Ronnie in which jimmy broke into to steal money. It must be provenbeyond all reasonable doubt by the prosecution that accused indeedactually intended to kill or seriously cause harm to the deceased man. Lord Hailsham LC states that if a person in full knowledge of thedanger involved, and without lawful excuse, intentionally does thatwhich exposes a victim to the risk of probable serious bodily harm ordeath and the victim dies. The person responsible for this crime is guiltyof murder.[1] In order to successfully convict the accused. The peopleof director public prosecution will have to present the issue in their exactmanner on the day of the event. And in order prosecute the accusedthey will support their stand against the accused with a credible law andapply the law to this case in order to win the support of the judge andjury.Issue In this scenario, the director of public prosecutions will have to provethat the harm and death caused to Ronnie by the accused man jimmywas intentional. And to evidently determine if the accused actions byhitting the deceased man as much as he did were the probable cause ofdeath. In order for the prosecution to achieve this goal, they will need toobtain all possible information in relation to this case in question. Whichwill include the medical autopsy of the deceased mans corpse todetermine the cause and manner of death. However, in defense, theaccused would want to argue that his conviction would be not logical ashe did not intend to kill the man as he claimed to have done what he didin order to “frighten” the man. Notwithstanding the possible presence ofnecessary men rea or intention to kill jimmy the accused man inquestion did evidently commit the external element of the act by takingthe first step of going to steal money from the local spar and eventuallyattacking the man and punching him several times proves this was aguilty act. this goes a long long way to prove that this killing wasunlawful. Thus, the actus reus was also present. The presence of thistwo elements ultimately proves murder.LawA set precedent case that elaborates a clear instance of intention whichwould go a long way in establishing the presence of necessary mensrea in the murder of the deceased man and proving beyond reasonabledoubt to the judge and jury that indeed, the accused Mr. jimmy intendedto kill or cause serious harm is The English case of Hyam. v. DPP[2]which is cited as authority for the proposition that an accused intends a
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