(Exam Paper) All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) Question Paper Held on 2014

Duration : 90 Minutes

Max. Marks : 150 Marks

Directions (Qs. 1 -7): The questions in this section are based on the passage. The questions are to be answered on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. For some of the questions, more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However, you are to choose the best answer; that is, the response that most accurately and completely answers the questions. 
Under very early common law, all felonies were punishable by death. The perpetrators of the felony were hanged whether or not a homicide had been committed during the felony. Later, however, some felonies were declared to be non-capital offences. The common law courts, in need of a deterrent to the use of deadly force in the course of these non-capital felonies, developed the “felony-murder” rule. The first formal statement of the rule stated: “Any killing by one in the commission of a felony is guilty of murder.” The killing was a murder whether intentional or unintentional, acci dental or mistaken. The usual requirement of malice was eliminated and the only criminal intent necessary was the intent to commit the particular underlying felony. All participants in the felony were guilty of murder- actual killer and non-killer confederates. 
Proponents of the rule argued that it was justified because the felony demonstrated a lack of concern for human life by the commission of a violent and dangerous felony and that the crime was murder either because of a conclusive presumption of malice or simply by force of statutory definition. 
Opponents of the rule describe it as a highly artificial concept and “an enigma wrapped in a riddle.” They are quick to point out that the rule has been abandoned in England where it originated, abolished in India, severely restricted in Canada and a number of other commonwealth countries, is unknown in continental Europe, and abandoned in Michigan. In reality, the real strength of the opponents’ criticism stems from the bizarre and of times unfair results achieved when the felony-murder rule is applied mechanically. Defendants have been convicted under the rule where the killing was purely accidental, or the killing took place after the felony during the later flight from the scene; or a third party killed another (police officer killed a citizen or vice versa; or a victim died of a heart attack 15-20 minutes after the robbery was over; or the person killed was an accomplice in the felony). 
Attacks on the rule have come from all directions with basically the same demand – reevaluate and abandon the archaic legal fiction; restrict and limit vicarious criminal liability, prosecute killers for murder, not non¬killers; increase punishment tor the underlying felony as a real deterrent, and initiate legislative modifications. With the unstable history of the felony – murder rule, including its abandonment by many jurisdictions in this country, the felony-murder rule is dying a slow but certain death. 
1. Which one of the following best states the central idea of the passage? 
a) The felony – murder rule should be abolished 
b) Some jurisdictions are about to abandon the felony – murder rule. 
c) The felony – murder rule can be unfair. 
d) Supreme Court of the United States, 
2. The felony – murder rule was developed in order to 
a) deter felonies 
b) deter murders 
c) deter deadly force in felonies 
d) extend the definition of murder to any malicious act resulting in death 
3. Arguments in favour of the felony – murder rule may include all of the following EXCEPT 
a) We can infer that anyone undertaking a dangerous felony demonstrates an indifference to human life. 
b) If the punishment for the use of deadly force whether intended or not is the same, criminals will be less likely to use deadly force. 
c) Because a life has been taken, the crime is murder by force of statutory definition. 
d) The victim of murder may be an accomplice of the felony. 
4. According to the passage, opponents of the felony – murder rule have raised all of the following objections to the statute EXCEPT 
a) The felony – murder rule results in murder prosecutions of defendants who have not committed murder. 
b) The felony – murder rule assigns a criminal liability vicariously. 
c) The felony – murder rule is based upon a presumption of malice even if death is wholly accidental. 
d) The felony – murder rule deters the use of deadly force in non-capital felonies. 
5. In which of the following situations would the defendant NOT be liable to the charge of murder under the felony – murder rule? 
a) In escaping from an unsuccessful attempt to rob a bank, the defendant crashes his car, killing an innocent pedestrian in another city. 
b) A bank security officer, pursuing the defendant after a robbery, falls down a flight of stairs and suffers serious permanent brain and spinal cord injuries. 
c) The driver of the escape car, who has not entered the bank, crashes the car killing the armed gunman who committed the robbery. 
d) A bank teller, locked safely in the bank vault by the robber, has a stroke and dies. 
6. According to the passage, the decline of support for the felony – murder rule is indicated by the abandoning of the rule in all of the following locations EXCEPT 
a) Continental Europe 
b) India 
c) England 
d) Canada 
7. The author believes that the felony – murder rule is 
a) unconstitutional 
b) bizarre and unfair 
c) a serviceable rule unfairly attacked by the “intelligentsia” 
d) an unfair equating of intent to commit a felony and intent to commit murder 

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