The concept of mens rea or the guilty mind is significant in law; it is important for deciding culpability and criminal liability. However, in many cases, mens rea may be difficult to establish simply because the motive for a crime – particularly some murders – appears to be so bizarre! Some reasons for committing murders are so strange as to be downright stupid!
In the instance of the Charles Manson murders, the ‘Manson Family’ turned up at an address only to find that the intended victims no longer lived there. They still went ahead and killed the residents since they had taken the trouble to go there; and because they did not want to ‘waste gas money’.
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