washington criminal lawyer

washington criminal lawyer
Introduction

Murder is not foreseen in the Statutes in England and Wales, with its definition, by the law. The definition of murder can be divided into two elements, Mens rea and actus reus. This brief article will focus on these two elements of murder. First, a brief insight into the two terms should be. This equipment is the reader with the relevant understanding of the critical part of this article, namely the development of these two concepts. Finally, this article will focus on the future of the definition of murder, based on proposals for an appropriate definition of the crime of murder.

Actus Reus and Mens rea

The concept of the actus reus focuses on the Act of all crimes, not just murder. As stated in the introduction, the actus reus of the common criminal by the law. The act itself is not considered a criminal offense. There must be a mental element of a crime, which is known as Mens rea. An example would be easy to have a dog and a dog will. While the law will be the same, and the result, the intent is to change the circumstances of a crime.

The basic concept of men refers to the mental element of the crime. This definition may be extended by the crime in the crime. The main contributory to most crimes, that the intention of following the example above. If these two elements are present, it is an offense have been committed.

Evolution of the two concepts

The first definition of the actus reus for the murder was of a cola "unlawful killing of a reasonable person in and to be among the kings of peace". This definition was derived from the 17th Century and was not equipped to deal with advances in medicine after the beginning of this definition.

The most problematic part of the two-part definition of Mens rea. The bulk of literature that has dealt with this area has focused on the definition of intent, and more importantly, the perspective of a person accused of such an offense. An example would be the classic representation in most textbooks. You want a person in the air to blow up an airplane. The accused argues that his only goal was his only intention. However, the plane is full of people on board when the plane explodes then the people aboard are killed. One person likely to have their actions, thus plays a crucial role. The case law on the mens rea was extensive, with a definition is finally in one case, the House of Lords. (It is not within the scope of this brief article to the surface fully, although the citation for this case is R v Woolin 1996).

Proposals for the future

The Law Commission has proposed a definition for the Mens rea element, although this was not accepted. A more recent proposal was approved by the Nathan Committee, even if they are only slightly changed the law at the present time, even if the demands for a specific definition, the law seems more distant than ever.

Conclusion

As already mentioned in this brief article, the offense of common law murder is an extremely difficult issue. The first elements are in Latin and foundations have made it in 17th Century. The development of these two approaches has been slow and cumbersome and could lead to accusations that the only reason is that the issue is too emotional. Although the definition is now settled in this area require a definition which by law as in the United States.