Law
A majority of crimes comprise of two broad components; mens rea and actus reus. Mens rea denotes to the intent an individual has behind committing a crime. It also means to have a “guilty mind.” The reason behind this rule it is inappropriate for society to punish people who cause harm innocently. Actus reus denotes to a “guilty act,” and in general, it refers to an overt act of furthering crime (Allen, 2016). Needing an overt action as part of a crime is an indication that the society puts more focus on punishing only bad actions, and not bad thoughts. For a behavior to be considered as criminal in nature, the mens rea and actus reus must thus take place concurrently. Since this case involves gang activity, the application of the legal theory of conspiracy is necessary; this theory permits derivative liability where a conspirator can also be punished for unlawful acts conducted by other conspiracy members, even if they were not involved directly (Yanev, 2018).
In this case, Big A demonstrated his intent to murder the gang leader of Gang X as evidenced in his response to Little A’s Tweet “Biscuits and milk 8am.” He responded through his Facebook by liking the post and retweeting the post using the @ symbol to call out several other known members of Gang Y. Big A also furthered the crime by responding through his Instragram account by saying “Go get it.” This gave Little A the go ahead to commit the crime. As such, Big A is perceived as a conspirator based on the legal theory of conspiracy and hence liable as well. However, this alone is not enough to make our case against Big A strong. Therefore, there is the need to collect additional evidence such as mobile phone records, witnesses, and money trails.
References
Allen, M. (2016). Concentrate questions and answers criminal law: Law Q&a revision and study guide. Oxford University Press.
Yanev, L. D. (2018). Theories of Co-perpetration in international criminal law. BRILL.
