Does mens rea apply here?
Don’t want to give too much away but the story, which had been charging along on its first rewrite, has struck a snag.
The issue is:
Woman [A] observes a killing of a woman [B] by someone hidden [C].
The gun is thrown down by C who then seems to have disappeared.
A walks up to B, picks up the discarded gun and puts another bullet into B.
B had been a pretty bad person, blackmailing both A and C, so no one mourned her death.
There were about two minutes between the two shootings.
A had been there to remonstrate with B.
Her putting of a bullet into the dead B was in the nature of “and that goes for me too”.
In the criminal law in the United States, the definition of a given offense generally includes up to three kinds of “elements”: the actus reus, or guilty conduct; the mens rea, or guilty mental state; and the attendant (sometimes “external”) circumstances.
This was in England though. Has A committed a crime and if so, which one?
Filed under: Society & human issues
Would your readers be more, or less, exercised if the issue was women’s rea?
That girl is very attractive. I dont care that shes a mass murderer.
Shes smoking HOT.
If B was already dead then A cannot be convicted of murder or manslaughter, as far as I know. I don’t know if by using the gun A has destroyed any evidence of C using the gun and has committed an offence.
It was a professional foul, m’Lud.
Sackers – oo, you are awful.
Dave – that is so.
Lemmi – it’s a curly one.
Dearieme – but was it a crime?
As far as the physical evidence goes, A is now the more likely suspect. There may be no way of telling which bullet was fired by A and which by C.
Maybe only A will know the answer to this if C didn’t check that B was actually dead and didn’t see the inflicted wound.
Potentially complicated.
Interfereing with evidence?
Thinking again (twice in one night is a lot for me) handling a firearm without a licence, and I suppose theft of a bullet.
Yes, complicated. The licence bit or tampering are the way they might go on her.
Isn’t there also a crime against a human body Tondew?
None of them are guilty, but another white male celebrity will be accused of paedophilia.
Much as I try to keep my eyes focused on that lady’s gun, they just can’t help wandering elsewhere. And of course she is presumably saying, “Make love to me right now or I will shoot you”… (a man can dream…). Oh…Many crimes, by the way, including discharging the firearm (it is an offence in England), violating a dead body (if it was dead), interfering with evidence, failing to immediately report a serious crime, and she’d quite possibly be done for collaborating in murder if a coroner could not be 100% certain the first shot was fatal.. oh and probably breach of the peace and violation of EU noise abatement regulations, and possibly lead pollution of the environment too..
Can’t be a crime if a woman does it. There is a Law, sub-section, para wotsit somewhere that says that.
Also, if B were Julia Gillard or Nicola Roxon, A should get an Australia Day Award and given an Uzi to deal with the rest of the lying, corrupt feminist louts who comprise the Government.
I can honestly say that my eyes were on the gun and probably the overall non-ugliness of the shot, plus the word Life. In a vague way I saw the other but it was only when posted and someone mentioned it I looked more closely and wow – they are big, are they not?
I wove DQS’s list of charges into the story and am past there now. Thanks all.
http://thereluctantpaladin.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/girl-friday-1110.html