Section 101: Except in the cases hereinafter excepted, culpable homicide is murder,––
(a) if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing
death; or
(b) if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing
such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person
to whom the harm is caused; or
(c) if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing
bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient
in the ordinary course of nature to cause death; or
(d) if the person committing the act by which the death is caused, knows that it
is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death, or such bodily
injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring
the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.
Illustrations.
(a) A shoots Z with the intention of killing him. Z dies in consequence. A commits
murder.
(b) A, knowing that Z is labouring under such a disease that a blow is likely to cause
his death, strikes him with the intention of causing bodily injury. Z dies in consequence of
the blow. A is guilty of murder, although the blow might not have been sufficient in the
ordinary course of nature to cause the death of a person in a sound state of health. But if A,
not knowing that Z is labouring under any disease, gives him such a blow as would not in the
ordinary course of nature kill a person in a sound state of health, here A, although he may
intend to cause bodily injury, is not guilty of murder, if he did not intend to cause death, or
such bodily injury as in the ordinary course of nature would cause death.
(c) A intentionally gives Z a sword-cut or club-wound sufficient to cause the death of
a man in the ordinary course of nature. Z dies in consequence. Here A is guilty of murder,
although he may not have intended to cause Z’s death.
(d) A without any excuse fires a loaded cannon into a crowd of persons and kills one
of them. A is guilty of murder, although he may not have had a premeditated design to kill any
particular individual.