Homicide

Question 1

Common Law Murder

Answer 1

Unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought

Malice Aforethought: intent to kill, intent to inflict great bodily injury, reckless indifference, intent to commit a felony

Question 2

Statutory Murders

Answer 2

First Degree, Second Degree, Felony Murder, Manslaughter

Question 3

First Degree Murder versus Second Degree

Answer 3

Default second degree unless premeditated and deliberate or a statute provides otherwise

Question 4

How is second degree murder classified?

Answer 4

Usually as depraved heart killing (done with reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life) or any murder not classified as first degree

Question 5

Felony Murder

Answer 5

Any death (even accidental) 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

At common law, this includes felonies like burglary, arson, rape, but statutes today have created many more felonies

Question 6

Felony Murder Limitations

Answer 6

1. The defendant must have committed or attempted to commit the underlying felony
2. The felony must be distinct from the killing itself
3. Death must have been a foreseeable result of the felony
4. The death must have been caused before the defendant’s “immediate flight” from the felony ended
5. In most jurisdictions, the defendant is not liable for felony murder when a co-felon is killed by victim or police

Question 7

Felony Murder: Proximate Cause vs. Agency Theory

Answer 7

Proximate Cause Theory: felons liable for deaths caused by someone other than co-felon

Agency Theory: killing must be committed by a felon or their “agent”

Question 8

Voluntary Manslaughter

Answer 8

Voluntary manslaughter is a killing that would be murder but for the existence of adequate provocation

Question 9

VM: When is provocation adequate?

Answer 9

1. It was a provocation that would arouse sudden and intense passion of an ordinary person
2. The defendant was in fact provoked
3. There was not sufficient time between provocation and killing and
4. The defendant in fact did not cool off

Question 10

Imperfect Self Defense

Answer 10

Some states recognize an “imperfect self-defense” doctrine under which murder may be reduced to manslaughter even though the defendant was at fault starting the altercation or the defendant unreasonably but honestly believed in the necessity of responding with deadly force

Question 11

Involuntary Manslaughter Elements

Answer 11

A killing is involuntary manslaughter if it was committed:

With criminal negligence (or MPC recklessness) or

In some states, during the commission of the unlawful act

Question 12

Causation Requirement

Answer 12

The defendant’s conduct must be both the cause-in-fact and the proximate cause of the victim’s death

Question 13

Cause-In-Fact

Answer 13

A defendant’s conduct is the cause-in-fact of the result if the result would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s conduct

Question 14

Proximate Causation

Answer 14

A defendant’s conduct is the proximate cause of the result if the result is a natural and probable consequence of the conduct

Question 15

Rules of Causation

Answer 15

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

Also, simultaneous acts of two or more persons may be independently sufficient causes of a single result

Question 16

Causation Limitations

Answer 16

Year and a Day Rule: Although most states have abolished it, some states require that the death of the victim must occur within one year and one day from the infliction of the injury or wound

Intervening Acts: Generally, an intervening act shields the defendant from liability if the act is a coincidence or is outside the foreseeable sphere of risk created by the defendant.

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