Today's lecture covered criminal law topics including homicide, culpable and non-culpable homicide, murder and the different types of murder. It discussed actus reus and mens rea requirements for homicide and murder. It also discussed defenses such as mental incapacity, automatism, and whether an act was the result of an insane or non-insane automatism. The lecture concluded by reminding students to come to the next class prepared with questions for an exam review session.

1. Today’s Lecture
Criminal Law:
Homicide and Sleepwalking

2. Clarification
Actus reus
and
Mens rea

3. Charter issues to watch
for
s. 11(d)
Innocent until proven guilty

4. Homicide
Culpable
vs.
Non-culpable homicide

5. Is it Culpable Homicide?
Offence Unlawful act: 222(5)a Criminal negligence: 222(5)b
• some offence violation of Code or Common Law
duty: s. 219
Mens rea Objective test: Objective test: wanton or
Foreseeability of bodily reckless disregard for safety or
hard that is neither trivial
lives of others
nor transient
Death?
Yes Yes
Causation?
Yes Yes

6. Is it Murder?
s. 229
• Intention to cause death
• Reckless as to death occurring
• Transferred intent
• Imputed intent
• [s. 230, Constructive murder, found unconstitutional]
• If it’s Homicide but not murder, then it’s
Manslaughter

7. What kind of Murder?
• First degree murder
Planned and deliberate, s. 231(2); or
In performance of sexual assault, hijacking,
kidnapping or unlawful confinement, s. 231(5)
• Otherwise, it’s Second degree murder

8. Sentencing
• Life imprisonment in all cases
• First degree murder: no chance of parole for 25
years
• Second degree murder: No chance of parole for
10 years (2nd time: 25 yrs)
• Manslaughter: Normal parole requirements (If firearm
used, then min 4 yrs)

9. Parties to offence of
murder
• Parties:
– Commits; Aids; Abets
• Resulting crimes
– Plan it together, then are parties to resulting
crimes
– Charter violation?

10. Mental Incapacity and
Automatism
• Fit to stand trial?
• Defence of mental incapacity:
– Finding of “not criminally responsible by reason of
insanity” or “on account of mental disorder”
• “Defence” of Automatism:
– Actually goes to actus reus, not really a defence

11. Automatism
• Presumption
• Question: insane vs. non-insane automatism
• Issue: “Air of Reality”
• Objective test to determine:
– External cause; or
– Internal cause

12. Next class…
• Exam prep and review –
–Come with questions!