## Facts

- Smith, a military sentry, intended to kill another soldier, Maloney.
- While on guard, Smith saw a person he believed to be Maloney and fired his weapon with intent to kill.
- The person shot was William Taylor, another sentry, whom Smith misidentified as Maloney.
- Taylor died from the shooting.
- Smith was indicted for murder, convicted at trial, and appealed, arguing he lacked intent to kill Taylor.

## Issues

1. Whether a defendant who intends to kill A but, by mistake of identity, kills B is guilty of the murder of B.
2. Whether malice aforethought directed at an intended victim can satisfy the mens rea requirement for the killing of an unintended victim caused by the same act.

## Decision

- The court affirmed Smith’s murder conviction.
- The court held that an intent to kill Maloney was sufficient to support liability for the murder of Taylor when Taylor was killed by the same intentional shot.
- Mistake as to the victim’s identity did not defeat the concurrence of mens rea and the lethal act.

## Legal Principles

- When a defendant, acting with malice aforethought, intentionally uses deadly force against one person but kills another, the intent transfers to the person actually killed.
- For murder, the prosecution need not prove an intent to kill the specific individual who died if the defendant intended to kill a human being and caused a death through the intended lethal act.
- A defendant’s misidentification of the victim does not break the causal and mental-state connection between the intentional act and the resulting homicide.

## Conclusion

The case applies transferred intent in homicide, treating a defendant’s intent to kill the intended target as legally sufficient mens rea for the murder of the person actually killed when the death results from the same intentional act.


Regina v. Smith, 169 Eng. Rep. 845 (1855)