This report evaluates the case of Mr. Rafiq who is charged with the murder of his wife Saara. It examines the elements of Actus Reus and Mens Rea to determine Rafiq's liability.
Contribute Materials
Your contribution can guide someone’s learning journey. Share your
documents today.
MURDER
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3 MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3 Evaluation of Rafiq’s liability towards murder...........................................................................3 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION Murderas per the English Common Law is an act of offence categorised as the most serious form of homicide where the intention of one person is to kill another person or cause serious body damages (Kesselring, 2016). The present report will evaluate the case of Mr. Rafiq who is the defendant in the present case and have been charged with the murder of his wife Saara. MAIN BODY Evaluation of Rafiq’s liability towards murder First of all elements ofActus Reuscan be evaluated in context of Rafiq where the elements of conduct can be evaluated. Actus Reus basically indicates the physical movement and the bodily actions of the defendant that led to murder of the victim in the present case (Cunningham and et.al., 2018). These are more broadly categorised as the arguments in favour or in defence of the criminal. Primary cause in case of murder is willingness or voluntariness to murder someone. In the present case, there is no evidence that Rafiq intentionally wanted to murder Saara. First the prosecution needs to prove that Rafiq was guilty and then further argument can be done on the basis of evidence and arguments presented by defence (Dropuljic, 2017). Rafiq simply found the thought of losing his partner unbearable and hence acted out of pure instinct to keep Saara with him only. It has also been clearly stated that Rafiq is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and has not quite fully recovered from the experience. It is medically stated that the patients of PTSD lack any significant control over their own emotions and actions and when they are experiencing any emotions or feeling too significantly, it might significantly impair their capability to rationally think as well (Smith, 2017). This was exactly the case with Rafiq at the present moment where he failed to take any rational decision and did whatever seemed plausible to him in order to stop his wife from leaving him. Therefore, it can be said that the actions or present state of Rafiq was not very reasonable. Further the causation aspect can be discussed in relation to Actus Reus where the act or omission of defendant must act as the operating cause of death of the victim (Tartakoff, 2018). In the present case, the weed killer was predominantly used to simply make Saara a bit ill so that she would not leave. Additionally, it can also be said that there are no studies or evidences that indicate that the weed killer gives 100% guarantee to kill any human being because many weed killers don’t even affect the humans due to lack of any microorganisms in humans. 3
The analysis of the different elements above indicates that at present on the face of Actus Reus, there does not seem to be any fact that proves the guilt of the defendant i.e. Mr. Rafiq. Now elements pertaining toMens Reacan be evaluated in context of Rafiq, the defendant where the intention of wrongdoing or criminal intent will be discussed so that the state of the convict at the time of murder can be evaluated (Amatrudo, 2018). These are arguments against the act performed by Rafiq where he will be held liable for his own actions. It can be evidently said that actions of Mr. Rafiq were reckless. Despite being under the control of red hot rage that he was feeling, he knew at the back of his mind that use of weed killer is reckless and careless thing to do because this is not a human friendly component. It has already been discussed that to be convicted of murder, it is necessary to prove the ill intention to kill somebody or cause severe bodily harm that can result in potential death. In the present case similarly, it is evident that the use of weed killer can act as a potential tonic for inflicting serious body harm even if not kill the person (Liem, Krüsselmann and Eisner, 2020). This provides enough evidence against the defendant Rafiq to prove his guilt. However there are certain additional points that can be attributed to the present case. The intention of Rafiq to cause grievous bodily harm to Saara can be proved against him. It can be clearly established that the use of weed killers is not considered safe for the humans. Rafiq was well aware about this but still chose to go on with his plan and mixed a “little” in her soup knowingly. This directly puts the life of Saara on jeopardy and in this case, the claim of the act under which the intention to cause body harm can be proved to be true. Despite his irrational thinking that is justified under the PTSD, he did not try to communicate with her even once. The last argument that can be presented against the innocence of Mr. Rafiq, the defendant is the intention to kill. In order for a murder to be validated, it is necessary to prove the intention to kill and earlier it was proved that Rafiq did not wanted to kill Saara but only cause her bodily harm but however, this can be contradicted (Wiest, 2016). It is evident that Saara had put in a lot of efforts after Rafiq was found to be suffering from PTSD. When things became beyond her control she decided to leave him. Now as Rafiq has himself admitted he was hot with rage at the moment when he decide to make Saara ill but psychology says that when a person is in hot rage, then he is not rational and cannot plan anything. This indicates the Rafiq along with his PTSD must not be acting in a rational manner and hence the chances that he had simply illness in mind by the use of painkiller and rather planned to kill Saara for once and all. 4
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
The presentation of these arguments above is enough to indicate the guilty conscious of Rafiq in the present case of R vs. Rafiq. Based on the positive as well as negative arguments that were presented in the present case of Rafiq who has been charged guilty for the murder of his wife Saara, one last thing needs to be done is to establishcontemporaneity. In order to establish crime, it is first necessary to prove that the Actus Reus occurred at the same time as Mens Rea (McDiarmid, 2018). If the Mens Rea to kill wife would have occurred to Rafiq, he would have done it at the same time and the quantity of weed killer used would not have been little. The Actus Reus was actually much later in the case of Rafiq in the evening and this indicates that the time of Actus Reus does not match with the time of Mens Rea. CONCLUSION The evaluation of the different aspects associated with the case above indicates that the overall results can be drawn in favour of Mr. Rafiq where he cannot be proved to be guilty with the murder if Saara. It can also be concluded that despite the faulty actions of Rafiq at the moment, they were purely with the intention of retaining Saara with him and he intended to cause bodily harm to her only. Therefore Actus Reus does not coincide with the Mens Rea and hence the lack of correlation of the both reinforces the emphasis that the intention of Rafiq was not to murder Saara. But the use of weed killer in the present case still cannot be justified and especially for a patient of PTSD who has still not regained control over his emotions. 5
REFERENCES Books and Journals Amatrudo,A.,2018.OrganisationsandTheirEnterpriseinUKCriminalLawandin International Law. InCriminal Actions and Social Situations(pp. 89-115). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Cunningham, S., and et.al., 2018. Sex work and occupational homicide: Analysis of a UK murder database.Homicide studies.22(3). pp.321-338. Dropuljic, S.A., 2017. The Classification of Murder and Slaughter in the Justiciary Court from 1625-1650: Malice, Intent and Premeditation-Food Forethought.Aberdeen Student L. Rev..7. p.121. Kesselring, K.J., 2016. No Greater Provocation: Adultery and the Mitigation of Murder in English Law.Law & Hist. Rev..34. p.199. Liem, M., Krüsselmann, K. and Eisner, M., 2020. From Murder to Imprisonment: Mapping the FlowofHomicideCases—ASystematicReview.HomicideStudies, p.1088767920924447. McDiarmid, C., 2018. Killings short of murder: Examining culpable homicide in Scots law. InHomicide in Criminal Law(pp. 21-36). Routledge. Smith, J., 2017. Murder. Tartakoff, P., 2018. From conversion to ritual murder: re-contextualizing the circumcision charge.Medieval encounters.24(4). pp.361-389. Wiest, J.B., 2016. Casting cultural monsters: Representations of serial killers in US and UK news media.Howard Journal of Communications.27(4). pp.327-346. 6