Outline criticisms surrounding the current law on murder.

One criticism with the law on murder is the wide mens rea element. The mens rea for murder is with malice aforethought express or implied, meaning someone with the direct intention to kill (Mohan) will be liable in the same way as someone with a virtual certainty of causing grievous bodily harm (following the Woolin test). These differing states of mind could be said to either increase or decrease culpability, therefore meaning it is unfair that both would be convicted of murder and receive the mandatory life sentence. Additionally, the law on murder does not consider motive meaning someone who maliciously kills would be convicted of the same crime as someone who commits a 'mercy' crime out of compassion, such as Frances Ingles who killed her severely disabled son and was described as committing a 'crime of compassion'. The lack of clarity between the different states of mens rea therefore produces absurd and unjust outcomes and thus don't reflect the fair labelling principle established by Ashworth which states that the label given to a crime should reflect culpability.