LAW109 Criminal Justice Assessment One, Part 2 HOMICIDE PROBLEM QUESTION Instructions Set out below is a hypothetical scenario which raises a number of issues relating to the criminal responsibility of one individual. Your task is to identify the relevant law and assess the relevant issues that may affect criminal liability in this scenario. You are required only to deal with issues arising from the topics of criminal responsibility and homicide (Weeks 1-2, 4-5). You should have regard to the relevant readings, lectures and tutorials from those weeks. You do NOT need to research beyond the Unit content (readings, lectures), other than statutory provisions as necessary. You should NOT consider complete defences. You will need to apply relevant legislation and/or case law to provide support for each legal argument put forth in your answer. You should have due regard for the modern approach to statutory interpretation in answering the question. If unsure how to structure your answer, you should refer to the tutorial exercises for answering problem questions and the instructions that will be given in the Week 5 lecture. It is strongly recommended that you make use of appropriate sub-headings. Your answer must be no longer than 1500 words. Your word count must be included at the bottom of your assignment. The word limit excludes citations contained in footnotes. Formatting and other policies relevant to assessments in this Unit are contained in the Unit Guide. When referencing for this assessment task, if referring to a case it is ok to cite the Unit reading or lecture that refers to the case rather than going to the case itself (cite lectures per AGLC3 6.12 Speeches). This is not normal practice; in other assessments, other Units and of course in legal practice itself you need to go to the original source of the case judgment rather than rely upon a third-party interpretation. However this assessment is designed to test your understanding of the law of homicide rather than your legal research and citation skills. Due date: 11:59pm Friday 8th September 2017 Hypothetical Scenario Amber is on her way to visit her brother Frank. Frank lives across town with their other brother, Tom, near the shore of a bay. Frank has a 3:30pm medical appointment and needs a lift from Amber because his licence has been suspended. When Amber arrives outside of Frank and Tom's house she hears yelling and the sound of furniture smashing. She knocks on the door but no-one responds. Finding the door to be unlocked, she enters and proceeds to the lounge room where the noise is coming from. She sees Frank on the floor, unmoving, with a kitchen knife embedded deeply in his chest. There is blood everywhere. Tom is standing over Frank. When Tom sees Amber he says, \"He made me do it\". Amber flies into a rage. She picks up a broken chair leg and advances on Tom, who turns and flees out the back door. Amber chases after him, wielding the chair leg. Tom runs down to the bay and out onto the jetty. He tries to reason with Amber, who smacks him in the face with the chair leg, breaking his nose. Tom retreats to the end of the jetty and finds himself at a dead end. Amber hits him again with the chair leg, and screams \"I'll kill you, you're dead, I'm going to bash your head in\". He is desperate to find a way to make Amber back off. Tom cannot swim, and Amber knows this. A number of children from the local primary school are hanging out on the jetty on their way home from school. Tom picks up one of the children, Lucas, and holds him in front of him as a shield from the chair leg. He yells to Amber, \"I'll jump in, I'll jump, I'll do it if you don't stop hitting me\". Amber advances on him, holding the chair leg above her head. Tom jumps into the bay, taking Lucas with him. Most children in the local area are strong swimmers from a young age, living by the water. Lucas however has recently moved to the area and cannot yet swim competently. Tom and Lucas sink into the water. Amber stands and watches, motionless and silent. The commotion has drawn the attention of various locals. A woman dives into the water, grabs hold of Lucas, drags him up onto the jetty and attempts to revive him. An ambulance is called. Others detain Amber until the police arrive. Lucas is rushed to the local hospital where he is placed on life support. He has suffered brain damage. Two days later his family turn off his life support machine. Tom's body is recovered from the bay the next day. Assess Amber's criminal liability with respect to Lucas only. Restrict your attention to homicide offences, and disregard any other possible offences she has committed