Conclusion
In this lesson you have covered a good deal of rather technical
material. You should now understand the elements of a crime and have a
good basic grasp of what a criminal offence is and who can be charged
with having committed one. With this understanding as background, you
are now ready to see how the criminal justice system works from the
commission of the crime and the arrest, through the trial procedures and
sentencing, and on to the process of punishing the offender. You will
get started on this in the next lesson.
Check your knowledge
Al wants to murder Petru. He drives him to the top of a cliff where he shoots him in the head. Believing Petru to be dead, he throws him over the cliff to dispose of the body. Later, an autopsy reveals that, in fact, Peru was alive when tossed off the cliff, but it was the fall that killed him.
A. Al’s defence at the murder trial was that he never had the necessary actus reus and the mes rea at the same time. Explain how this was true.
B. Would Al be convicted of murder? Explain your answer