Chapter 9: Crimes Against Persons 1: Murder and Manslaughter

Question 1

born-alive rule

Answer 1

the rule that to be a person, and therefore a homicide victim, a baby had to be “born alive” and capable of breathing and maintaining a heartbeat on its own

Question 2

feticide

Answer 2

the crime of killing a fetus

Question 3

murder

Answer 3

killing a person with “malice aforethought”

Question 4

manslaughter

Answer 4

killing a person without “malice aforethought”

Question 5

justifiable homicide

Answer 5

killing in self-defense

Question 6

excusable homicide

Answer 6

killings done by someone “not of sound memory and discretion”

Question 7

criminal homicide

Answer 7

all homicides that are neither justified nor excused

Question 8

malice aforethought

Answer 8

originally the mental state of intentional killing, with some amount of spite, hate, or bad will, planned in advance of the killing

Question 9

depraved heart murder

Answer 9

(also called depraved indifference murder) extremely reckless killings

Question 10

intent to cause serious bodily injury

Answer 10

no intent to kill is required when a victim dies following acts triggered by the intent to inflict serious bodily injury short of death

Question 11

serious bodily injury

Answer 11

bodily injury that involves a substantial risk of death; protracted unconsciousness; extreme physical pain; protracted or obvious disfigurement; or protracted loss or substantial impairment of a function of a bodily member, organ or mental faculty

Question 12

“express” malice aforethought

Answer 12

the mental element of killings that fit the original meaning of “murder”—intentional killings planned in advance

Question 13

“implied” malice aforethought

Answer 13

the mental element of intentional killings without premeditation or reasonable provocation; unintentional killings during the commission of felonies; depraved heart killings; and intent to inflict grievous bodily harm killings

Question 14

murder actus reus

Answer 14

the act of killing by poisoning, striking, starving, drowning, and a thousand other forms by which human nature can be overcome

Question 15

murder mens rea

Answer 15

can include purposeful, knowing, or reckless as the mental element in killing

Question 16

first-degree murder

Answer 16

the only crime today in which the death penalty can be imposed, consisting of

(1) premeditated, deliberate intent to kill murders
(2) felony murders

Question 17

capital cases

Answer 17

death penalty cases in death penalty states and “mandatory life sentence without parole” cases in non–death penalty states

Question 18

bifurcation procedure

Answer 18

the requirement that the death penalty decision be made in two phases: a trial to determine guilt and a second separate proceeding, after a finding of guilt, to consider the aggravating factors for, and mitigating factors against, capital punishment

Question 19

deadly weapon doctrine

Answer 19

one who intentionally uses a deadly weapon on another human being and thereby kills him is presumed to have formed the intent to kill

Question 20

second-degree murder

Answer 20

murders that aren’t first-degree murders, including intentional murders that weren’t premeditated or deliberate, felony murders, intent to inflict serious bodily injury murders, and depraved heart murders

Question 21

felony murder rule

Answer 21

unintentional deaths that occur during the commission of some felonies are murders

Question 22

manslaughter (pt. 2)

Answer 22

an ancient common law crime created by judges, not by legislators, consisting of two crimes: voluntarily or involuntarily killing another person

Question 23

voluntary manslaughter

Answer 23

suddenly and intentionally killing another person in the heat of anger following adequate provocation; elements include murder actus reus, mens rea, causation, and death

Question 24

adequate provocation

Answer 24

the requirement that the provocation for killing in anger has to be something the law recognizes, the defendant himself had to be provoked, and that a reasonable person would have been provoked

Question 25

objective test of cooling-off time

Answer 25

requires that a reasonable person under the same circumstances would have had time to cool off

Question 26

“words can never provoke” rule

Answer 26

the rule that words are never adequate provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter

Question 27

“last straw” rule

Answer 27

also called the “long smoldering” or “slow burn” rule, defines adequate provocation as “a smoldering resentment or pent-up rage resulting from earlier insults or humiliating events culminating in a triggering event that, by itself, might be insufficient to provoke the deadly act”

Question 28

extreme mental or emotional disturbance manslaughter

Answer 28

a homicide committed under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is reasonable explanation or excuse. The reasonableness of such explanation or excuse shall be determined from the viewpoint of the person in the actor’s situation under the circumstances as he believes them to be

Question 29

paramour rule

Answer 29

the common law rule that a husband who caught his wife in the act of adultery had adequate provocation to kill; today, it applies to both parties of a marriage

Question 30

gay panic

Answer 30

adequate provocation based on “the theory that a person with latent homosexual tendencies will have an extreme and uncontrollably violent reaction when confronted with a homosexual proposition”

Question 31

emotion-act distinction

Answer 31

separating the emotions that led to a killing from the question of whether the killing itself was reasonable

Question 32

act reasonableness

Answer 32

meaning “a finding that a reasonable person in the defendant’s shoes would have responded as violently as the defendant did”

Question 33

emotional reasonableness

Answer 33

a finding that “the defendant’s emotional outrage or passion was reasonable”

Question 34

involuntary manslaughter

Answer 34

an unintentional killing (mens rea) by a voluntary act or omission (actus reus)

Question 35

criminal negligence manslaughter

Answer 35

death caused by a person who is aware that her acts create a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death or serious bodily injury, but acts anyway

Question 36

unlawful act or misdemeanor manslaughter

Answer 36

unintended deaths occurring during the commission of nonhomicide offenses

Question 37

malum prohibitum crime

Answer 37

death has to be a foreseeable consequence of the unlawful act; the act is unlawful only because it’s prohibited by a specific statute or ordinance

Question 38

euthanasia

Answer 38

helping another person die

Question 39

presumption of bodily integrity

Answer 39

a state can’t exercise power over individual members of society except to prevent harm to others