Homicide

Question 1

Common Law Murder

Answer 1

Unlawful killing of human w/malice aforethought. Malice aforethought can be proven with any of the following mental states:

1. Intent to kill
2. Intent to inflict great bodily injury.
3. Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high right to himan life (abandoned and malignant hear or depraved heart), or
4. Intent to commit a felony (felony murder).

*Intentional use of deadly weapon authorizes permissive inferrence of intent to kill.

*Reasoning doesn’t matter: Mercy killings still murder.

Question 2

First Degree Murder

Answer 2

Muder is second degree unless one of the following:

1. Deliberate (cool and dispassionate - what are consequences) and Premeditated (should I kill) even for a short insteant (acted w/intent or knowledge that conduct would cause death).

If voluntary intoxication, then can’t premeditate.

2. First Degree Felony Murder: Killing commited during enumerated felony. (BARRK); inherently dangerous to human life).
3. Others. Such as statutes that make killings performed in certain ways first degree (torture, police officer if in line of duty and known).

Question 3

Second degree muder.

Answer 3

If the jurisdiction divides murder into degrees, second degree murder
is usually classified as a depraved heart killing (a killing done with a
reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life) or any
murder that is not classified as a first degree murder.

Question 4

Felony Murder

Answer 4

Any death—even an accidental death—caused in the commission of,
or in an attempt to commit, a felony is murder. Malice is implied from
the intent to commit the underlying felony.

Limits on Liability - must have:
1. Committed or attempted to commit the underlying felony. (any defense to felony negates felony murder). (have to have intent to commit underlying felony).
2. Felony must be distinct from the killing itself (for example,
commission of aggravated battery that causes a victim’s death does
not qualify as an underlying felony for felony murder liability).
3. Death must have been a foreseeable result of the felony (a
minority of courts require only that the felony be malum in se).
4. The death must have been caused before the defendant’s
“immediate flight” from the felony ended; once the felon has
reached a place of “temporary safety,” subsequent deaths are not
felony murder.
5. In most jurisdictions, the defendant is not liable for felony murder
when a co-felon is killed as a result of resistance from the felony
victim or the police.

Under the “proximate cause” theory, felons are liable for the deaths
of innocent victims caused by someone other than a co-felon. Under
the alternative “agency” theory of felony murder, the killing must
be committed by a felon or their “agent” (that is, an accomplice) with
limited exceptions in cases in which the victim was used as a shield
or otherwise forced by the felon to occupy a dangerous place.

Question 5

Voluntary Manslaughter

Answer 5

Killing that would be murder except for adequate provocation. Provocation adequate only if:

1. (i) Provocation that would arouse sudden and intense
   passion in the mind of an ordinary person under the circumstances, (ii) causing them to lose
   self-control.
2. The defendant was in fact provoked.
3. There was not sufficient time between provocation (or provocations)
   and the killing for passions of a reasonable person to cool;
   and
4. The defendant in fact did not cool off between the provocation
   and the killing.

Heat of passion is not defense to killing, it just reduces murder to manslaughter.

Question 6

Imperfect self-defense to murder

Answer 6

murder may be reduced to manslaughter even though (1) the
defendant was at fault in starting the altercation; or (2) the defendant
unreasonably but honestly believed in the necessity of responding
with deadly force (meaning the defendant’s actions do not qualify for
self-defense).

Question 7

Involutnary Manslaughter

Answer 7

A killing is involuntary manslaughter if it was committed:
* With criminal negligence (or by “recklessness” under the M.P.C.)
or
* In some states, during the commission of an unlawful act (misdemeanor
or felony not included within felony murder rule). Foreseeability
of death also may be a requirement.

Question 8

What is the difference between second degree (abandoned and malignant heart) and Involuntary manslaughter

Answer 8

Abandoned and malignant heart murder at common law involves a
high risk of death while involuntary manslaughter based on recklessness
requires only a substantial risk.

Question 9

Homicide Causation

Answer 9

Both (1) cause in fact (“But for” and (2) proximate cause (“natural and probably consquence”).

• An act that hastens an inevitable result is still the legal cause of
  that result.

Simultaneous acts of two or more persons may be
independently sufficient causes of a single result.

*A victim’s preexisting weakness or fragility, even if unforeseeable, does not break the chain of causation. The defendant “takes the victim as he finds him.”

Question 10

Limitations to Homicide Causation:

Answer 10

Year and day rule: death w/in time. Most state that reviewed have abolished.

Intervening act: Shielf D from liability if act is coincidence or outside foreseeable sphere of risk created by D. (Note that a third party’s negligent
medical care and the victim’s refusal of medical treatment for
religious reasons are both foreseeable risks, so the defendant would
be liable).