Homicide

Question 1

Definition of homicide?

Answer 1

The killing of one human by another

Question 2

What is the actus reus of homicide?

Answer 2

Causing the death of another (both the conduct and result elements)

Question 3

What are the two basic categories of homicide?

Answer 3

Murder and manslaughter

Question 4

How did the common law distinguish between the most heinous homicides?

Answer 4

Murder was a killing with “malice aforethought”

Question 5

What are the types of homicide under the MPC?

Answer 5

Murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide

Question 6

Under the MPC, when is homicide considered murder?

Answer 6

When committed purposely or knowingly OR committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life

Question 7

What constitutes manslaughter under the MPC?

Answer 7

When it is committed recklessly OR a homicide which would otherwise be murder is committed under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance

Question 8

What constitutes negligent homicide under the MPC?

Answer 8

When it is committed negligently

Question 9

What are the categories of homicide under common law principles?

Answer 9

First degree murder, second degree (depraved heart) murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter

Question 10

What are the requirements for first-degree murder?

Answer 10

Mens rea: intent to kill; actus reus: causing death; evidence of premeditation and deliberation

Question 11

In first-degree murder, how is intent to kill inferred/proven?

Answer 11

Can be inferred by the use of a deadly weapon on a vital body part or from the defendant’s words or conduct or from the attendant circumstances

Question 12

What are the definitions of premeditation and deliberation?

Answer 12

Premeditation: forethought; deliberation: weighing of consequences

Question 13

What is the majority approach to premeditation and deliberation?

Answer 13

An appreciable length of time must pass between forming the intent to kill and actually killing

Question 14

What are the 3 important ways to prove premeditation (forethought)?

Answer 14

Planning, motive (prior relationship), preconceived design

Question 15

What is “depraved heart” murder?

Answer 15

This type of killing is not intentional, but the conduct is so egregious that it exhibits an extreme indifference to human life —> gross dangerousness

Question 16

What are the crucial considerations for elevating involuntary manslaughter to second degree murder?

Answer 16

Probability of harm, intentionality of the conduct, gross disregard for the consequences

Question 17

What are the elements of the provocation doctrine?

Answer 17

1. Heat of passion, 2. Adequate or reasonable provocation, 3. Before a reasonable cooling period, 4. Standard: a reasonable person’s judgment would have been clouded by the provocation to lose their self-control

Question 18

What is the majority approach to determining an adequate provocation?

Answer 18

Categorical objective approach: extreme assault or battery on the defendant, mutual combat, illegal arrest, injury or serious abuse of a close relative, sudden discovery of a spouse’s adultery

Question 19

What is the minority approach to provocation?

Answer 19

Subjective: an adequate provocation can be “anything” based on what the jury decides is sufficient under the standard

Question 20

What are the elements of extreme emotional disturbance?

Answer 20

1. Defendant acted under an extreme emotional disturbance, 2. Reasonable explanation for the emotional disturbance, 3. The reasonableness is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the actor’s situation under circumstances as defendant believed them to be

Question 21

What is felony-murder?

Answer 21

Elevates what would normally be an unintentional killing up to murder without proving the necessary mens rea just because the defendant was in the process of another felony at the time of the death

Question 22

What is the majority approach for the scope of felony-murder?

Answer 22

This doctrine should apply to any act in the commission of a felony that results in death, whether or not death was a foreseeable result of the act

Question 23

What is the majority theory for felony-murder when a third-party caused the death?

Answer 23

Agency theory —> no liability for killing done by a third person because was not in furtherance of the felony

Question 24

What are the 2 requirements of causation?

Answer 24

Actual causation and proximate causation

Question 25

What is the test for actual causation?

Answer 25

But for (whether the result would have happened but for the defendant’s conduct)

Question 26

What is the traditional test of proximate cause when there is a potential intervening physical cause?

Answer 26

Foreseeability test —> whether the result and manner of the result were foreseeable and not highly extraordinary

Question 27

What is the LaFave approach to intervening causes of proximate cause?

Answer 27

When a subsequent human act intentionally causes the result, look if the intervening act was a coincidence or response. A coincidence breaks the causal chain unless the coincidence was foreseeable. A response breaks the causal chain unless the response was abnormal

Question 28

What are the exceptions where a defendant can be responsible for subsequent human action?

Answer 28

Involuntary acts of the person, acting without knowledge of the relevant circumstances, and those acts constrained by compulsion of duty, duress, or an emergency created by the defendant

Question 29

What are the 2 approaches to proximate cause for subsequent actions that recklessly risk the result?

Answer 29

Direct causal connection test or the traditional foreseeability test