Crime

During the tutorial session, Mr Sonny mentioned about the crime issue which i found out very interesting. He mentioned about the mens rea and actus reus which are related to the crime offenders. Mens rea literally translated from the Latin means guilty mind.

According to the Law Teacher website, The general basis for imposing liability in criminal law
is that the defendant must be proved to have committed a guilty act whilst having had a guilty state of mind. The physical elements are collectively called the actus reus and the accompanied mental state is called the mens rea.

According to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, killing just one person or thousands at once constitutes the same offence - it is still an act of murder, a crime deserving of the most severe punishment. In Malaysia, the accused must actually kill someone, and intend that he is killing someone, in order to be guilty in the murder. There is a case where a maid attempted murder on her employer by adding poison in the soup and coffee. In the end, the offence, under Section 307 (1) of the Penal Code, carries a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine, or up to 20 years if the act had resulted in injuries to the intended person. In my opinion, if the employer passed away due to venomous of drink/food, the offender shall be sentence to death!

On the other hand, one is free from moral blame for causing a harm to another if one neither intended to cause such a harm. Murder is a species of homicide and therefore homicide is not always a murder. This is accepted by English and Islamic Law. According to Law of Murder, Homicide is the killing of human being by another human being. It is either lawful or unlawful. Lawful Homicide includes justifiable homicide where the death is caused by a person under mistake of fact, believing that he is either bound or justified by law. Besides, if he or she is doing an act likely to cause harm but without a criminal intend or acting in private defense. Moreover, excusable homicide also includes cases where the death is caused by accident/misfortune without any criminal intention or knowledge in doing lawful act. A child/or person of unsound mind/intoxicated person also bound under excusable homicide. In 2008, there was a case where an Indonesian was sentenced to five years' jail for burrying his newborn baby alive. He was plead guilty to the charge under Section 304b of the Penal Code, charging with committing unintentional homicide on the baby. Under Malaysian Law, Law of Murder is governed by Section 300 of the Penal Code.

As for the case of murder of Tengku Teh Susilawati,20, by former policeman Abdul Halim Hassan got only seven years’ jail. Such punishment caused the furious of the mother of Susilawati. In her point of view, seven years’ jail can never compare to what he did. She would rather want the court to sentence him for death penalty! The family is still upset over the cruel murder crime which the offender had done to their daughter. Though they have learnt to accept the fate, it is still a tough situation where they have to admit the loss of Sulawati.
Overall, murder crime is an issue that need to be upheld seriously by the judge so that the offender can be punished seriuosly with what they have done. It is the issue of justice that can keep the society in shape in relation with the progression towards a zero crime society.