Analysis of Voluntary Manslaughter in Criminal Law: Alice's Case

This case study analyzes a scenario involving Alice, an alcoholic with depression, who killed her partner, Brut, and later Mandy. The paper applies the ILAC rule to assess issues of voluntary manslaughter, focusing on loss of control and diminished responsibility. It defines key criminal law concepts such as actus reus, mens rea, intention, recklessness, and negligence, along with participatory and strict liability offenses. The analysis examines the elements of murder and manslaughter, including causation and the relevance of the Corner and Justice Act 2009. It explores the defenses of diminished responsibility and loss of control, as per the Homicide Act 1957. Applying these concepts, the study concludes that Alice is guilty of voluntary manslaughter due to loss of control and diminished responsibility, leading to a potential life sentence without bail. The analysis emphasizes the importance of mental state and the impact of the defendant's actions on the legal outcomes.

Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
ISSUE..........................................................................................................................................3
LAW............................................................................................................................................3
APPLICATION..........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The English criminal law is related with the wrong against the whole community or the
private individual (Herring, 2014). This study will focus on the case scenario of Alice where they
in turn tends to highly focus on loss of control and diminished responsibility with voluntary
manslaughter. ILAC rule will be applied to critically evaluate the scenario and attain valid
conclusive points.
MAIN BODY
ISSUE
The key prominent issue associated with the specific case study is that, Alice was an
alcoholic and has been suffering from severe depression. She has been chopping wood one fine
day in the back garden. Brut, the partner of Alice cam home and told her that, he has been at the
the pub and had intimate moment with Mandy. Alice is highly frightened of her husband because
he tends to beat her whenever Brut was drunk. But as this scenario happened, Alice rushed close
to Brut and hit him on the head hard around 20 times with the chopper. Subsequently, Brut has
fallen down to the ground and has died at the very moment. Alice has gone to find Mandy. Alice
found her and said that, I will teach you a lesson. For which Mandy replied that, “I am not afraid
of you. You re a pathetic old drunkard.” Amidst that, Alice has pulled the hammer from her
pocket and hit the Mandy head twice which eventually resulted in the death of the Mandy
because of the fractured skull.
LAW
Criminal Law
The English criminal law tends to mainly associate with the key concerns related with the
offences, consequence and prevention within the England and Wales (Ashworth, and Horder,
2013). Criminal conduct is highly associated with the wrong against the whole community or the
private individual. Criminal conduct has been carried out and which is considered to be wrongful
in the eyes of the law. The key elements which is mainly associated with the Criminal law UK
are:
Actus reus: It is a Latin word and is referred to as the guilty act and the key physical
element which is associated with the committing of the crime. It is considered to be as illegal
action which has been taken by the defendant in order cause any kind of harm to the other
individual person. Actus reus mainly comprises of conduct, results, state of affairs and omission.

Mens rea: It is referred to as one of the mainly associated with the state of mind of the
defendant (Mitsilegas, 2017, June). Most of the crimes which are true is mainly associated with
the requirement of the proof of mens rea. However, the mens rea is not required within those
offenses are the ones which tends to have strict liability. It is manly classified into intention,
recklessness and negligence.
Intention: It is mainly related with the high degree of fault at all the levels within mens
rea. The person who in turn tends to commit a crime are considered to be highly culpable then
the individuals who tends to act recklessly.
R v Inglis [2011] 1 WLR 1110 Court of Appeal
The appellant has highly appealed in the court for her conviction for the murdering of the
son Thomas. Her son has suffered various range of serious degree of head injuries. He was in a
vegetative state and the doctors were highly hopeful that the son will make a recovery. However,
the appellant, was convinced that this state was permanent and he will not recover. She has
become highly obsessive and has wanted to end the suffering of the son. So, she has injected him
with the lethal dose of heroin in order to kill him. The conviction was upheld within the court.
Law of murder does not underline with the murder which has been influenced by the familial
love and murder which has been committed because of malevolent reason. It is has been
committed on the basis of diminished responsibility because mercy killing is also a murder.
Recklessness: Recklessness within the criminal law is usually based on the unjustified
risk which has been taken on the part of accusation (Patrick, 2018). It is usually caused by the
poor decision and tends to involve unjustifiable risk consciously or unconsciously.
Negligence: Criminal negligence is mainly associated with the conduct where the
individual tends to highly ignore the known or the key obvious risk which results in disregard of
the safety or life of the individual.
Strict liability: These are considered to be as those crimes which in turn does require
proof of mens rea in association with the one or various other key aspects related with the actus
rea (Mitsilegas and Fasoli, 2017). Strict liability offence are considered to be as the primarily
regulatory offense who tends to aim at maintaining health and safety within the organization.
Participatory offence: this is one of the most fundamental rule which h in turn tends to
highly state that, the mens rea and actus rea within the specific scenario and case must coincide
with each other.

APPLICATION
The law of murder has been set out effectively within the common law. The law of
murder tends to state that., the unlawful killing of the human being within the Queen's peace has
lead to the malice aforethought. The actus rea of the murder is linked with the unlawful killing of
the human being within Queen's peace. On the contrary, the mens rea of the murder is referred to
as the malic aforethought (Ambos, 2018). This in the eyes of court is considered to be as the
intention of killing. The murder conviction in turn tends to highly carry out a mandatory life
sentence. The Corner and Justice act, 2009 will focus on effectively setting out the duties and
specific powers which will lead to the suspension of the Corner's investigation.
The actus reus tends to mainly associated with the results of the act of the defendant. As
per the specific case scenario, the result has lead to the murder and men slaughter of two people.
i.e. Brut and Mandy. Causation is highly linked with all set of result crimes (Behrens, 2016).
Causation is referred to as the enquiry whether the conduct of the defendant has caused any harm
or damage. Causation is considered to be as the criminal liability which has been effectively
divided two categories which are legal causation and factual causation. Factual causation tends to
apply 'but for' the specific test. However, legal causation is mainly linked with the harm caused
by the defendant has eventually resulted in culpable act. The defendant's action is not considered
to be as the sole cause which has eventually resulted in harm of the other person.
The Actus rea of the murder is considered to be as the unlawful killing which has been
committed by the act (Boister, 2018). The second element which is mainly linked with the actus
rea of the murder is human being. Moreover, in the Queen's peace the actus rea of the murder
tends to exclude the murder of alien enemies at the time of war. The mens rea of murder in turn
tends to mainly linked with the malice aforethought. It extends to both direct intent as well as
oblique intent.
Fagan v MPC [1969] 1 QB 439
A policeman has been directing the defendant to park the car. However, the defendant has
accidentally driven the care on the foot of the policeman. The policeman has shouted at him to
get off but the defendant has refused. The mens rea for formed and there was a lack of actus rea
because he has done nothing. The person was held highly responsible because the driving the car
on the foot of the policeman and not removing it is considered to be as a continuous act.

Voluntary manslaughter is mainly linked with three factors which tends to create defence
when the person is convicted of murder. This is linked with diminished responsibility and loss of
control.
Voluntary manslaughter diminished responsibility
Diminished responsibility is considered to be as one of the three special defences which
tends to exist solely for carrying out the offence of murder. It is contained within the Homicide
Act of 1957. The diminished responsibility is successfully pleaded with in turn highly results in
the successful pleading (Homicide: Murder and Manslaughter, 2019). This is however
considered to be as the effect of the reduction in the murder conviction for men slaughtering. In
order to rely within the defence the defendant in turn must be highly able to effectively
demonstrate the key abnormality related with the mental functioning which has been caused by
the recognized medical condition (Amatrudo, 2018). Another way is to provide a justified
explanation for the act of the defendant for the murder.
Voluntary manslaughter : The Loss of control
This is considered to be as the partial defence which in turn has resulted in the reduced
liability for the murder or manslaughter (Jimeno-Bulnes, 2017, June). This law does not tends to
operate in order to resolve the defendant of the key liability. It helps in evaluating various set of
concerns which are related with the defence of the provocation. The loss of control can be both
temporary or sudden.
Liability of Alice for the death of the Brut and Mandy
As per the specific case scenario, Alice was a person who in turn has been convicted to
men slaughtering because these core elements were present which includes a loss of the self
control within the individual person, the second is loss of self control who has a qualifying
trigger. The third one is of age who tends to have low tolerance power and self resistant. There
seems to be no significant requirement which has led to lack of the self control which is
supposed to be sudden. Alice has been convicted of been suffering from depression and is also
alcoholic. The intention of the murder is one of the most significant cause of the murder and
grievous bodily harm of fractured skull in Mandy. As per the specific case scenario, Alice has
carried out the offence voluntarily and will eventually result in the life imprisonment to the
Alice. The judge in turn can also impose lesser imprisonment sentence which ranges from 2 to
10 years depending on the severity of the case. In this case man slaughtering was however done

with the key intent to murder Brut. But however, where the partial defence in turn tends to apply
eventually leads to loss of self control and diminished responsibility (Fletcher, 2016). No bail in
turn will be granted to the Alice because voluntarily man slaughtering has eventually led to the
death of the Brut and Mandy.
CONCLUSION
As per the specific case scenario, it has been concluded that, The law of murder is
considered to be as the unlawful killing of the human being within the Queen's peace has lead to
the malice aforethought. The Alice has been convicted of actus reus tends to mainly associated
with the results of the act of the defendant. The Loss of control and diminished responsibility are
considered to be as the key relevant factors which has eventually resulted in murder and man
slaughtering of the Brut and Mandy. Alice was not in her self control and with no self resistance
which h led to the occurrence of such drastic step. Alice has carried out the offence voluntarily
and will eventually result in the life imprisonment to the Alice without any bail.
CONCLUSION
From the conducted study it has been summarized that, The English criminal law tends to
mainly associate with the key concerns related with the offences carried out by the individual
which are crime in the England and Wales. The key elements which is highly associated with the
criminal law in UK are Actus rea, Mens rea, causation, negligence, strict liability, recklessness,
participatory offence and intention. With the given case scenario, the voluntary man slaughtering
by the Alice will be convicted for the lifetime imprisonment.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Ashworth, A. and Horder, J., 2013. Principles of criminal law. Oxford University Press.
Behrens, P., 2016. The criminal law of genocide: international, comparative and contextual
aspects. Routledge.
Boister, N., 2018. An introduction to transnational criminal law. Oxford University Press.
Fletcher, M., 2016. EU criminal law flexibility: what lessons from the UK Protocol No. 36
saga?. In Research Handbook on EU Criminal Law. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Herring, J., 2014. Criminal law: text, cases, and materials. Oxford University Press, USA.
Jimeno-Bulnes, M., 2017, June. Brexit and the future of European criminal Law–A Spanish
perspective. In Criminal Law Forum (Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 325-347). Springer Netherlands.
Mitsilegas, V. and Fasoli, E., 2017. Historical Pollution in the UK (England and Wales): The
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No. 2, pp. 219-250). Springer Netherlands.
Patrick, A., 2018. What’s the problem with intimate partner abuse? Exploring the role of
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Online
Homicide: Murder and Manslaughter. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/homicide-murder-and-manslaughter>