Harp
I'll Lock Up
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Such a kindly compliment, thank you. Dad's language gift was akin to those for whom the keys of a piano come naturally. He certainly helped me get through my French an Latin at school.
Where's my Dad when I need him? My Catholic teaching wouldn't have had coitus in the curriculum, that's for sure.
I know that actus reus, sometimes called the external element or the objective element of a crime, is the Latin term for the "guilty act" which, when proved beyond a reasonable doubt in combination with the mens rea, "guilty mind", produces criminal liability in the common law-based criminal law jurisdictions of Canada, and Australia. I just cannot connect actus reus to coitus.
For those whose Latin is a little rusty, allow me to quote from my school Latin/English dictionary:
Coitus: "copulation, sexual intercourse," 1848, scientific use of Latin coitus "a meeting together; sexual union," past participle of coire "to come together, meet," from assimilated form of com "together" (see co-) + ire (past participle itus) "to come, to go," (from PIE root *ei- "to go").
It's that bit about, "to come together," that causes silly Catholic schoolboy sniggers.
'Actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit reum.' Common Law joins act and mind for a crime to have
occurred. Otherwise, the act itself exists bereft of deliberate intent. A law school criminal case most
remarkable in memory had two US Air Force enlisted men take a maiden-ostensibly alive and sober
from an Alabama bar to a nearby wood; perform the Robin Hood, but Maid Marian failed to awaken.
These twins took the maid to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead. Charged with murder.
Subsequent autopsy results showed the lady to have expired from natural cause, most probable
time of death happened enroute sylvian tryst; consequently the boys found under carnal knowledge
with a corpse. And Alabama had no law on the books regarding necrophilia. No crime, no intent.
Case closed. A classic common law tort of misadventure.