Criminal Law: Homicide, Defenses, Unlawful Assembly, UK Legislation

This report provides a comprehensive overview of criminal law, specifically focusing on the concept of homicide. It defines homicide and distinguishes it from murder, exploring the intentions and states of mind involved. The report delves into various defenses against homicide charges, including self-defense, necessity, and insanity, examining relevant case law and legislation, such as the Criminal Law Act 1967 and the M’Naughten Rules. Furthermore, it analyzes the meaning of unlawful assembly under the penal code and the criminal responsibility of its members, discussing related cases and statutory provisions. The report also clarifies the difference between provocation and diminished responsibility in relation to UK legislation on homicide, offering insights into the legal distinctions and their implications. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and concepts discussed throughout the analysis.

Criminal Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Meaning of Homicide and if any homicide act is considered as murder.....................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
Case law and legislation regarding self defence..........................................................................2
Case law and legislation regarding necessity..............................................................................2
Case law and legislation regarding Insanity (M’Naughten Rules)..............................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
Meaning of unlawful assembly under penal code and discussion on criminal responsibility of a
member of unlawful assembly.....................................................................................................3
Explaining the given statement with cases..................................................................................4
Statutory provisions and jurisprudence where an individual can not be treated as guilty of
murder..........................................................................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
Assessing the difference between provocation and diminished responsibility in reference to the
UK legislation related to homicide..............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Homicide is a term that is generally linked to an act where an individual indulges in killing some
other individual. The report briefly discuses meaning of homicide and how variation is actually
made in activities that whether they are murder or not. The report also defines, various defences
of homicide, such as, defence, necessity and insanity. The report will then make comprehensive
discussion regarding meaning of unlawful assembly under penal code and argument on criminal
responsibility of a member of unlawful assembly. In the end, the report discusses statutory
provisions and jurisprudence where an individual cannot be treated as guilty of murder.
TASK 1
Meaning of Homicide and if any homicide act is considered as murder
Homicide is considered to be an act of one human being killing the other. In order to
consider an act as homicide, it is important for on individual to commit a particular course of
action, which results in leading the other individual to death (Fitz-Gibbon, 2014). Hence, it can
be stated that homicide is the result of reckless, negligent or accidental acts even if the individual
may not be having any intention to harm the other. Homicide can further be divided in to murder
and manslaughter. An act is considered to be in one of the two categories based on intention and
state of mind of individual to perform that act. Hence, it can be stated that all the homicide acts
are not considered as murder.
As per the legislation of UK, murder is one of the forms of homicide, Hence, every murder
cannot be considered as homicide. For a homicide to be considered as murder, it is important
that, the act has been conducted intentionally by the individual. Murder is the most serious crime
that is charged under homicide, where jurisdiction have right to punish the individual for life or
even give capital punishment as well. Murder can be divided into categories. These are, first
degree murder, which include planning, unlawful and intentional killing of person. There is
another second-degree murder which is not planned but it is unlawful and intentional. Another
aspect related to homicide is manslaughter where an individual indulges in murder without
having any intention to kill the victim. It is due to potential lose in control of the actions due to
he / she being mentally and emotionally disturbed at particular point of time. The penalty
generally charged on manslaughter is comparatively less to what is charged in case of murder
(Harris, Leao and Rhodes, 2013).
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As per the legal definition of murder, under Common law of UK, murder is considered to be
an intentional killing, which is unlawful and committed with malice aforethought. It is the
intentional bodily harm that can lead to the death of victim. However, in case of manslaughter,
the act can be intentional or unintentional both. In this scenario, it can be stated that murder and
manslaughter can both be the part of homicide. However, murder is always intentional. Hence,
every homicide can not be considered as murder, due unintentional aspects attached to homicide
as well.
TASK 2
Case law and legislation regarding self defence
All the homicidal activities can not be considered as crime or are subjected to have any
type of criminal prosecution attached to it. Some of the acts are privileged to not be considered
as criminal acts. Hence, defence can be given to the individual on various basis. On of this basis
is self-defence. One has the right to defend oneself or others from any type of activity. In this
scenario, the individual has validated right to opt for deadly force as well. One can use this force
while defending himself / herself from any type of attack, preventing attack on any other person
and also to defend his property as well. Further section 3(1) of Criminal Law Act 1967, an
individual has right to use this force in prevention of certain crime as well (Gekoski, Gray and
Adler, 2012).
As per the case of R v Scarlett [1994] Crim LR 288, the defendant tries to eject a drunk
individual from his premises as the drunk individual decided the he will not be leaving
voluntarily. During this scenario, the drunk man fell from 5 steps and died due to strong hit on
his head. In this scenario, degree of force applied by the defendant have greater aspects to do
with, if he will be treated as a murder or not. In the end, it was confirmed that the degree of force
was not more than the permissible bar then he was not treated as a convict for the case that took
place between the two, due to application of self defence aspect in it.
Case law and legislation regarding necessity
There are certain circumstances that crop up where homicide become justifiable. However,
it is not considered as lawful, killing in battlefield during war is justifiable and generally
considered as lawful. Further, a police officer shooting a serious suspect, is also considered to be
justifiable as it can be dangerous for officers as well as other’s life. The practice is also
applicable on various pre-determined actions and events that can be in the form of hate groups,
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gangs or domestic terrorist organizations which target people based upon their, colour, creed,
race, religious beliefs, age, sexual orientation and disability.
One case, R v Bourne [1939] 1 KB 687, where the defendant is a gynaecologist, performed
abortion on a young girl, who got raped. Since, as per her finding, it could have been dangerous
for the life of the patient. The act will be treated as necessity and will not be considered under the
periphery rule of homicide as the defendant acted in a good faith. However, the same has now
been already included in Abortion Act 1967 of UK (Hanmer and Itzin, 2013).
Case law and legislation regarding Insanity (M’Naughten Rules)
An individual is not happened to be criminally responsible if he / she is able to prove that
he / she is suffering from any type of mental disorder. Therefore, an individual suffering from
weakness of mind, partial or total insanity are the basic benchmarks based on which it can be
decided that whether the individual will be sentenced to murder or not. it helps in diminishing
the overall responsibility of the individual who have actually committed the crime.
The landmark case of R v. Sullivan, it depends upon the aetiology of organs that whether
an individual will be held liable with respect to his doings or not. Further, it is also important to
notice that whether impairment is transient or intermittent.
TASK 3
Meaning of unlawful assembly under penal code and discussion on criminal responsibility of a
member of unlawful assembly
Unlawful assembly is a legal term which is generally used in context of describing a group
of people with mutual intent of deliberately involving in disturbing peace. When the disturbance
has just been initiated, then it is termed as rout. However, it has already been commenced then it
is termed to be a ‘riot’ (Segal, 2012).
Every individual who has been present in the unlawful assemble is liable for any type of
crime that can crop up in the country. Hence, the whole force will be responsible as they all work
together so as to act in some common purpose. These purposes may solely endanger the public
peace in a manner that create fear of immediate danger in people as well. Hence, it can be stated
that any type of criminal activity taking place in the country due to unlawful assemble, then in
that case, the whole force will be held liable for any criminal activity taken place, even if it has
been conducted by the single individual only (Ashworth and Horder, 2013).
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Explaining the given statement with cases
“All instances of Murder must necessarily be culpable homicide; but, all instances of
Culpable Homicide are not Murder”. It can be stated that murder is a part of homicide and hence
all the homicides can not be considered as murder. Culpable homicide and murder are the two
different offences and hence are treated separately by the court as well. Culpable homicide is
considered to be genu s and murder is a species of the same. Hence, it can be stated that All
murders are culpable homicide but not vice versa. An individual is considered to have conduced
culpable homicide if the act is done with intention of causing death or at least have the
knowledge that the act or injury given to him will likely to cause death of the individual
(Herring, 2014).
Hyam v DPP [1974] indicated that appellant set fire out of jealousy in the house of
defendant, which led kill 2 girls living in it. Although he stated that it was not intentional to kill
anybody in the house. The decision was actually made against him as there were high probable
chances that fire will hurt the individual staying in the house. Hence, he has been charged as the
guilty of murder and not homicide irrespective of the fact that his intention was not to kill people
(Sealy and Worthington, 2013).
Statutory provisions and jurisprudence where an individual can not be treated as guilty of murder
There are various provisions that are linked to the situations or circumstances, dwelling in
which is not considered as murder. Some of them are mentioned below:
 If the individual has just got injured and activity has not led him to death, in this scenario, it
is not treated as murder.
 If an act is performed under the periphery of provision being issues by the government, then
the act will not be considered as murder (Horder, 2012).
 A killing is not a murder if an individual has been killed is not “under the Queen’s peace”.
 If the crime which took place was different from the crime which was intended, leading an
individual to be killed, will not be considered as a murder.
 If an individual has been able to survive for more than the stated period, after the incident,
then it will not be considered as a proximate cause of death.
 Euthanasia is not considered under the periphery of murder.
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TASK 4
Assessing the difference between provocation and diminished responsibility in reference to the
UK legislation related to homicide
In certain murder cases, a legal distinction is created between plea of provocation and
diminished responsibility. It helps in reflecting the ethical distinction between partial excuse of
wrong doings and partial denial of responsibility. Law of provocation have been discriminatory
against female defendant’s there they are forced to plead for diminished responsibility in order to
secure conviction through manslaughter (Howe, 2013). As per the legal definition of
provocation, it is considered to be the set of events that might be enough to cause reasonable
person to lose his self control. These are the acts that takes place out of pure malice which lead to
affecting the quality of mind which an individual carry. However, in contrast to this, diminished
responsibility has been able to form an important place in law of homicide of England. The act is
considered to be in partial defence to murder and if it proves to be successful, then it reduces the
charges of manslaughter. It can arise due to medical condition of the individual or impaired in
rational judgement and self-control. Mental condition of the individual plays an important role in
it (Kerr, Beech and Murphy, 2013).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that, as per the legislation of UK, murder is one
of the forms of homicide, Hence, every murder cannot be considered as homicide. There are
certain circumstances that crop up where homicide become justifiable. However, it is not
considered as lawful, killing in battlefield during war is justifiable and generally considered as
lawful. Unlawful assembly is a legal term which is generally used in context of describing a
group of people with mutual intent of deliberately involving in disturbing peace. In the end, it
can be stated that all instances of Murder must necessarily be culpable homicide; but, all
instances of Culpable Homicide are not Murder.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ashworth, A. and Horder, J., 2013. Principles of criminal law. Oxford University Press.
Fitz-Gibbon, K., 2014. Homicide law reform, gender and the provocation defence: A
comparative perspective. Springer.
Gekoski, A., Gray, J. M. and Adler, J. R., 2012. What makes a homicide newsworthy? UK
national tabloid newspaper journalists tell all. British Journal of Criminology. 52(6).
pp.1212-1232.
Hanmer, J. and Itzin, C., 2013. Home truths about domestic violence: Feminist influences on
policy and practice-A reader. Routledge.
Harris, E. M., Leao, D. F. and Rhodes, P. J., 2013. Law and drama in ancient Greece. A&C
Black.
Herring, J., 2014. Criminal law: text, cases, and materials. Oxford University Press, USA.
Horder, J., 2012. Homicide and the politics of law reform. OUP Oxford.
Howe, A., 2013. ‘Red mist’homicide: sexual infidelity and the English law of murder (glossing
Titus Andronicus). Legal Studies. 33(3). pp.407-430.
Kerr, K. J., Beech, A. R. and Murphy, D., 2013. Sexual homicide: Definition, motivation and
comparison with other forms of sexual offending. Aggression and Violent
Behavior. 18(1). pp.1-10.
Sealy, L. and Worthington, S., 2013. Sealy & Worthington's Cases and Materials in Company
Law. Oxford University Press.
Segal, S. P., 2012. Civil commitment law, mental health services, and US homicide rates. Social
psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. 47(9). pp.1449-1458.
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