A2 Law Murder Scenario

Murder Scenario 4

Eric, during the course of an argument, stabs his pregnant girlfriend. She recovers, but gives birth to their child prematurely. The doctors discover that the child was injured due to the original stabbing and dies shortly afterwards due to this original injury.

Eric could be liable for the Murder of his girlfriend’s child when he stabbed her causing her to give birth prematurely and consequently died.

Murder is a common law offence of which the sentence is mandatory life. Lord Coke defined Murder in 1797 as “The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being, under the Queen’s peace with malice aforethought, expressed or implied”

The Actus Reus is the physical element of the crime. In order for there to have been a murder there must have been an unlawful killing, a reasonable creature in being and it must have taken place under the Queen’s peace. There was an unlawful killing as Eric stabbed his girlfriend unlawfully. Therefore it was also a voluntary act as he voluntarily stabbed her as shown in Hill v Baxter. The killing must be of a reasonable creature in being; the baby was not brain dead as in Malcherek. However, the baby must not be a foetus without ‘an existence separate from the mother’. The baby in this case was born prematurely but did take its first breath and had an existence separate from the mother so therefore was a reasonable creature in being as shown in A-G Reference (No 3 of 1994)1997. This killing did take place under the Queen’s peace.

In causation the Defendant’s actions must be the cause of the end consequence. Factual causation uses the ‘But for’ test first seen in R v Pagett. ‘But for’ Eric stabbing his girlfriend, her baby wouldn’t have died due to the original injury. Legal causation shows that the Defendant must be more than a minimal cause but need not be the substantial cause of the end consequence

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