Conspiracy To Murder
Murder is often seen as the most serious offence in criminal law, but actually conspiracy to commit murder is often regarded as being more serious.
Murder is when a person of ‘sound mind’ unlawfully kills someone else either intending to kill or intending to cause serious bodily harm.
There are two main differences between murder and conspiracy to commit murder cases:
- In conspiracy cases there does not need to be a death. Individuals can be found guilty of conspiracy to murder even if the substantive offence was not carried out. One example would be where an individual hires a so called hitman to kill a rival, but law enforcement agencies become aware of the plan and arrest the individuals before the plan is carried out.
- Conspiracy to murder cases are technically more difficult for the prosecution to prove as they must prove an intention to kill. For example, if two individuals form an agreement to stab, but not kill another and that person goes on to die. They would be guilty of murder as clearly then intended serious bodily harm but would not be guilty of conspiracy to murder as there was no intention to kill. Technically they would also be guilty of an offence of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
Conspiracy to commit murder cases will always be delt with in the crown court and in some cases will be presided over by a high court judge. Conspiracy to commit murder cases raise complex issues of evidence. In proving a group of people were conspiring to kill someone the prosecution will often rely on Complicated digital evidence such as:
- Digital phone evidence – to try establishing a link between defendants and the content of text messages for example can also be used to establish a motive or intention.
- ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition – to establish the movements of vehicles.
- Cell site evidence – also establishes the location of an individual’s phone when an event such as a call or text occurs.
- Forensic evidence – such as DNA or fingerprints to link individuals to a scene or recovered property.
It is key to a successful defence to ensure that all of this evidence is scrutinised properly.
The best way to successfully defend yourself against a conspiracy to commit murder charge is by seeking the aid of specialist conspiracy to commit murder solicitors and having them build your defence.
To speak to a member of the Burton Copeland team for advice on a conspiracy to commit murder case you can either call us on 0161 827 9500 , or fill in our contact form and we will get back to you.
