Criminal law

[syed]

what are the actus reus of murder , voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter

[FredPuli]

You mean mens rea, not actus reus. The actus reus here is the killing ( Latin 'the guilty party's act'). The mens rea is the mental process that makes the act one or the other crime ( Latin ;'the guilty party's mind'). In brief murder is where the accused intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to the victim. Manslaughter is where he/she was reckless and so caused the death. Two other forms of manslaughter occur sometimes. A suicide pact where one of the parties survives in spite of their efforts makes them guilty of manslaughter, not murder. A successful defence of 'diminished responsibility' to a murder charge reduces murder to manslaughter.It is only a defence to murder. It is where the accused acvted under such severe but temporary loss of self control, such as could cause a reasonable person so to act, that they killed thevictim. This defence is common in cases such as wife suddenly killing the sadistic husband who has been persistently beating her over years and other cases of extreme emotional provocation. Both were created by statute because it was thought unjust to treat them as murder, for which the only sentence was life imprisonment ( sometimes death), manslaughter has no fixed penalty, though the maximum is also life imprisonment. "'Voluntary" and "involuntary " manslaughter are not distinguished in England; the terms are those of criminology not the law.