Common Law Homicide

Question 1

First Degree Murder

Answer 1

intentional (willful) killing committed w/deliberation and premeditation
Felony murder
Express Malice
Malice murder can be shown not only by defendant acted with deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another but also evidence that the defendant acted where no considerable provocation appears and where all circumstances show an abandoned and malignant heart (Taylor v State)
Deliberation and premeditation mean to reflect upon the intent to kill and make a deliberate decision to carry it out
First degree murder is a calculated killing as opposed to a spontaneous event
No time amount required to form premeditation and deliberation but there must be some period between the formation of the intent to kill and the actual killing (State v Guthrie)

Question 2

Malice Murder

Answer 2

(1) D acted w/deliberate intention unlawfully to take life of another human (external circumstances of proof) [express] OR (2) D acted where no considerable provocation appears and circumstances of killing show abandoned and malignant heart, extreme recklessness, extreme indifference to human life, abandoned and malignant heart
[implied]

Question 3

Second Degree Murder

Answer 3

Intentional killing without premeditation and deliberation
Implied malice
Depraved and malignant heart
Extreme recklessness
Extreme indifference to human life

Question 4

Voluntary Manslaughter

Answer 4

Intentional killing following provocation
“in the heat of passion”
Intentional killings in imperfect self defense

Question 5

Common Law Test of Provocation

Answer 5

Provocation is not an excuse but it is mitigation
Intentional killings committed in the heat of passion
Reasonable provocation (objective)
Which in fact provoked the defendants to heat of passion (subjective)
From which a reasonable person so provoked would not have cooled off between provocation and killing (objective)
Defendant did not cool off (subjective

Question 6

Involuntary Manslaughter

Answer 6

Unintentional killings resulting from recklessness not rising to the level of implied malice
Unintentional killings resulting for criminal negligence
Unintentional killings resulting rom or related to the defendants commission of a misdemeanor
Requires a mens rea of recklessness

Question 7

Felony Murder

Answer 7

Triggering felony + resulting killing = felony murder
Eliminates the requirement that the prosecution prove malice (intent to kill, express or implied) when killings occur in the course of the commission of felonies
Prosecution only needs to prove that the defendant had the mens rea associated with the commission of the underlying felony to support a felony murder conviction
Rationale- Certain crimes are serious and/or dangerous and therefore felonies; by willfully committing such crimes, defendants are deemed to be aware of the risk that someone may be killed as a result of their conduct

Question 8

First Degree Felony Murder [Proximate Cause]

Answer 8

Criminal liability will adhere only when felon’s acts are sufficiently direct cause of death arising from a specified list of felonies. When the intervening act of another party are supervening or unforeseeable, the necessary causal chain is broken and there is no liability for felony. The transferred intent allows the law to characterize homicide though unintended as an intentional killing. Thus the presence or absence of the requisite mens rea is an issue turning on whether felony is acting in furtherance of crime. It was foreseeable that someone would be shot in shoot out. (People v Hernandez)

Question 9

First Degree Felony Murder [Agency Theory]

Answer 9

Killings by third parties which occur in the court of a felony are not in furtherance of the commission of that felony by the defendants are not covered by the felony rule (State v Sophophone)

Question 10

Non-Independent Assaultive Felonies Merger Doctrine

Answer 10

If the underlying felony constitutes the means by which the killing is accompanied they merge
If felony is assaultive it merges with homicide and cant be underlying felony for felony murder. Look to elements of the crime not the fact

Question 11

Second Degree Felony Murder

Answer 11

Any non-assaultive felony satisfying the proximate cause or agency theory.