Criminal Liability for Murder: Analysis of David and Eugene's Case

David and Eugene leave the Flames night club but are still angry with the earlier altercation with Benjamin and Chris, so they decide to go outside and wait for them to teach them a lesson.  As Benjamin and Chris approach them, Eugene pulls a flick knife from his pocket and waves it in Chris’s face.  Chris says “I’m not scared of you, you idiot” at which Eugene lashes out and stabs Chris in the leg, severing an artery.  

When in the hospital, Chris refuses stitches in his leg because the nurse is a woman and “women are completely useless, no woman is going to stitch me up”. He bleeds to death as a result of this refusal.  Benjamin receives treatment for a bruise on his head but suffers an allergic reaction to a drug provided by Dr Anthony, a junior doctor and dies.   

David:

After the commotion inside the club myself and Eugene decided to wait outside for Benjamin and Chris. We wanted to teach them a lesson for the incident inside the club with Gabrielle. I was angry with Benjamin and when I saw him I immediately went over and pushed him. I didn’t intend to seriously hurt him and, although I was aware he might fall over, I did not envisage that he might be seriously injured by my actions – it was only a shove.

Eugene:

We were in the club having a good time and David was dancing with Gabrielle whilst I was dancing with another girl. I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see what was happening. As I did so I accidently bumped into Chris. It was a complete accident and something that happens all the time in night clubs. Chris stamped on my foot really hard and I was in a lot of pain. He apologised and said that he hadn’t seen my foot but he was smirking as he said this and I didn’t believe him. When I saw that David was injured too I was furious. We were all separated by the bouncers and both myself and David left the club. We were so angry we decided to wait outside for Benjamin and Chris; we just wanted to “teach them a lesson” and show them that they shouldn’t mess with the Northampton Crew.

When we saw them I pulled my knife out to frighten them. It didn’t seem to scare Chris though and I just lost my temper and lashed out at him. It was not my intention to cause serious harm, although I knew that I might.

When the police arrived I panicked. I have previous convictions for violence and knew I would be locked up; there was no way I was going to let that happen so I tried to run away.

David and Eugene are both charged with the murder.

Discuss the criminal liability for murder in relation to each of the defendants.  (You are only asked to consider the criminal elements of murder)

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

• Explain the component parts of specific criminal offences and defences as derived from statute and case law.
• Interpret a set of facts in order to identify any legal issues arising.
• Utilise the fundamental concepts and principles of the substantive criminal law and apply these to hypothetical situations.

Employability & Changemaker Skills

• Conduct legal research to locate primary and secondary sources relevant to criminal law
• Effectively communicate ideas in a structured and appropriately written format which demonstrates an understanding of the substantive law governing criminal activity.

Your grade will depend on the extent to which you meet these learning outcomes in the way relevant for this assessment. Please see the grading rubric on NILE for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed.