Mens Rea for Murder

Mens rea for murder

Section​ 316 (1)​an intention to kill the deceased or any other person. That is, If A intends to kill B and shoots at B but misses and kills C instead, A is guilty of murder. See ​Basoyin v AG (1966)

Section ​316(2)​:

An intention to cause grievous harm to the victim or some other person.

The intention in this regard can be deduced from:

1. ​The Surrounding Circumstances​; In an old English case, the definition of an intention to kill or cause grievous harm has been ​defined in terms of reasonable foreseeability​. Reasonable foreseeability makes the test objective; what is the reasonable expectation/result of the action. In that case, a woman whose husband was tired of her and courting another woman set fire to the letterbox by pouring petrol in it, the fire blew out and engulfed the house killing two children. She was convicted of murder because ​the court said she should have reasonably foreseen that her action could cause death or grievous harm.
2. ​The kind of weapon used, delicateness or risk of the act or the severity or intensity of the act. Section ​316 (3)​: If death results from an unlawful act which is likely to endanger life, such person would be held guilty of murder.
3. If there is an ​intention to do grievous bodily harm to someone for the purpose of facilitating the commission of an offence for which one can be arrested without warrant or facilitating the escape of someone who has committed or attempted to commit such an offence​.
4. Death resulting from administering any stupefying or overpowering thing to facilitate any of the above purposes. For example, sleeping pills that do not abide with body chemistry.
5. Death by unlawfully stopping the breath of another person