apply Criminal Law principles and concepts

You should put the word count at the end of the document which will be checked. If
you go over we will stop reading once the word limit is reached and everything after
that won’t be counted.

You are marked according to the following assessment criteria:
• The ability to apply Criminal Law principles and concepts and provide arguable solutions for
actual or hypothetical problems;
• The ability to reach a logical conclusion based on reasoned and convincing analysis which
engages with arguments on both sides;
• Ability to collect information from a variety of authoritative sources, both legal and extralegal, and ability to synthesise and assess the significance of the information collected;
• Knowledge and understanding of the relevant law, application to the problem and issues,
consideration of context and non-legal solutions, and correct advice;
• Clear, articulate and appropriate delivery of material in a written format, in clear language,
with suitable application of the relevant conventions on writing skeleton arguments, evidence
of the use of strategy and skill of persuasion;
• Demonstrating that statements, arguments and conclusions flow coherently and logically
within the skeleton argument as a whole, with critical and creative reflection on the material
used and the conclusions reached.
Assessment Case:
Sonny and Cher had been married for 10 years. Cher had been violent towards Sonny for
most of that time and he had endured regular beatings. He had not told anyone about the
beatings as he was too ashamed to admit that his wife was beating him up. He had
become an alcoholic because of this and was drunk most days. One Sunday, they went to
play bingo as normal and when they returned home, Cher accused Sonny of flirting with
one of the women they played bingo with. Cher was always nagging Sonny and accusing
him of having affairs. Sonny had not had an affair, though he had secretly joined an
internet dating agency. Sonny told Cher about the internet dating agency and said that he
was looking for a real woman who would love and cherish him and he was planning on
leaving her. Cher told Sonny that he was so ugly, and such a useless drunk, that he would
never meet anyone else, so he was stuck with her forever. This made Sonny angry and he
went into the kitchen to get a bottle of wine. He took the cork out of the bottle and poured
himself a glass and drank it. He then decided to make himself a sandwich which he ate in
the kitchen. He then went back into the living room with the glass and the bottle.
Sonny decided he had had enough of Cher taunting him and he took the wine bottle and
hit her on the head with it. Cher fell to the floor unconscious. Sonny thought she was dead
and left her on the floor and went to the pub. Sonny and Cher’s son, Tom, arrived home
later and found Cher on the floor still breathing. He called an ambulance and she was
taken to hospital and placed on a life support machine. Unfortunately, one of the nurses
accidentally switched off the machine and Cher died shortly after. The police arrested
Sonny and he was charged with murder.
During the trial at Brighton Crown Court, Sonny wanted to plead the defence of loss of
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control but the trial judge, Mrs Justice Roberts, did not allow this as she said there was not
enough evidence that it applied in his case. He also wanted to plead the defence of
intoxication but Mrs Justice Roberts did not allow this as she said it was not applicable in
his case. Sonny was convicted of murder. He wishes to appeal on the basis that the
following grounds of appeal have made the conviction unsafe and it should be overturned:
(1) He did not cause the death of Cher.
(2) He should have been allowed the defence of intoxication.
(3) He should have been allowed to plead the defence of loss of control.
All sources are to be cited using the OSCOLA referencing guide:
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/oscola_4th_edn_hart_2012quickreferenceguide.
pdf
Your footnotes should be referenced using the ibid and op cit referencing system (see
skeleton argument information slides).