ABSTRACT
Introduction If D poisons his mother’s drink, fully intending to kill her so that he can inherit under her Will, but she drops dead from a heart attack by some freak coincidence before drinking it, should D escape liability because he failed to kill her? If D bursts into a post office with a sawn-off shotgun, terrifies the staff and customers, but leaves empty-handed because one of the staff reacted quickly enough to press the alarm, should he escape liability because he failed to steal anything? Of course, both defendants are not liable for murder or robbery respectively, as they did not complete the crime. But they would almost certainly be guilty of an attempt. Indeed, the first illustration is taken from the facts of White (1910), where D tried to kill his own mother with potassium cyanide, only for her to die of natural causes. However, D was found guilty of attempted murder.
