Homicide

Question 1

What is Involuntary Manslaughter?

Answer 1

criminal negligence (typically)
Causing the death of another human being as a direct result of:
- an unlawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, or
- a lawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner.

Question 2

Define Murder

Answer 2

Common Law - the unlawful killing of a human being by another human being with malice aforethought

MPC - Criminal homicide constitutes murder when 1) committed purposely or knowingly; or 2) it is committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. Recklessness presumed when engaged in or an accomplice of actual or attempted robbery, rape, arson, burglary, kidnapping or felonious escape.

Question 3

Define Manslaughter

Answer 3

The unlawful killing of a human being by another human being without malice aforethought.

MPC - Criminal homicide that is 1) committed recklessly; or 2) a homicide which would otherwise be murder is committed under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is reasonable explanation or excuse. Determined from the viewpoint of a person in the actor’s situation under the circumstances as he believes them to be.

Question 4

What is Malice Aforethought

Answer 4

1. Intent to kill (express malice) - all other forms are “implied malice”
2. Intent to commit serious bodily injury - some jurisdictions do not recognize this as malice aforethought
3. Depraved-heart murder
   - Under circumstances showing “depraved mind” or “abandoned and malignant heart”
   - Often understood as “extreme recklessness”
4. Felony-Murder Rule

Question 5

What is voluntary manslaughter?

Answer 5

intentional murder is reduced to voluntary manslaughter because of:

• Provocation (heat of passion)
• Imperfect self defense
• Diminished capacity

Question 6

What are the degrees of murder in common law?

Answer 6

• 2nd degree - the default for intentional murder
• 1st degree - requires something additional, typically “premeditation and deliberation”

No degrees in MPC

Question 7

What is premeditation?

Answer 7

the killer must have reflected upon and thought about the killing in advance.
No particular length of time is required

Question 8

What is deliberation?

Answer 8

refers to the quality of the accused’s thought process, a killing that is deliberate is one that is undertaken with a cool head; the killer actually considers whether he wants to go on with the killing

Question 9

Define criminal homicide

Answer 9

MPC - purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently causing the death of another human being.

Question 10

Bingham Case (premeditation)

Answer 10

Defendant raped and strangled victim. Trial court found 3-5 minutes it took to strangle the victim was enough time for defendant to deliberate. Supreme Court of Washington overturned.

Rule: Premeditation and deliberation must occur before the commencement of the act of killing to constitute 1st degree murder.

Question 11

Gilbert Case (mercy killing)

Answer 11

Defendant shot and killed his wife who was severely ill and in extreme pain for a long period of time. He shot her to end her suffering.

Defendant stated he had a clear and deliberate process and thought about intentionally killing her for quite a while.

Court affirmed the conviction for 1st degree murder.

Question 12

What four elements are required for provocation?

Answer 12

1. The defendant acted in the heat of passion,
2. The defendant was reasonably provoked into the heat of passion,
   ○ Passion was a result of adequate provocation
3. Defendant did not have reasonable opportunity to cool off, and
4. Causal link between the provocation, passion, and homicide.

Question 13

Carr case (provocation)

Answer 13

Defendant shot and killed victim when he saw them engaging in homosexual kissing on a trail. Attempted to show history of rejection by women.

Not adequate provocation sufficient to cause a reasonable person to become so impassioned as to be incapable of cool reflection. A reasonable person would have left the scene.

Rule: The victim’s actions on the day of the killing must lead directly to the killing. If there is no legally adequate provocation, then evidence of previous abusive history is not relevant nor admissible.

Question 14

What is the MPC Extreme Mental or Emotional Disturbance Test?

Answer 14

• §210.3(1)(b) - a homicide that would otherwise be murder to be considered manslaughter when it is committed “under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is reasonable explanation and excuse.”
• Extreme mental or emotional disturbance
  ○ Determined from the viewpoint of a person in the actor’s situation under the circumstances as he believes them to be.
• Reasonable explanation or excuse.

Question 15

What is the Casassa Test for emotional disturbance?

Answer 15

The determination whether there was reasonable explanation or excuse for a particular emotional disturbance should be made by viewing the subjective, internal situation in which the defendant found himself and the external circumstances as he perceived them at the time, however inaccurate that perception may have been, and assessing from that standpoint whether the explanation…for his emotional disturbance was reasonable, so as to entitle him to a reduction of the crime charged from murder to manslaughter.
• How did he perceive the situation
• Was his emotional disturbance reasonable based on that view (even if inaccurate)
(Dumlao)

Question 16

What is Depraved Heart Murder?

Answer 16

Malice will be implied in a homicide case if it can be shown that the defendant acted with gross recklessness and manifested an extreme indifference to human life, meaning that the defendant realized that his actions created a substantial and unjustified risk of death, yet went ahead and committed the actions anyways.

Abandoned and malignant heart

Malone Case - Russian roulette, 5 chambers and pulled trigger 3 times killing the victim. Rule: Malice is evidenced by the intentional doing of an uncalled-for act in callous disregard of its likely harmful effects on others.

Question 17

Knoller case

Answer 17

Vicious dogs kept in an apartment attacked and killed victim.

Supreme Court of California ruled defendant must act with a conscious disregard of the danger to human life (not just serious bodily injury).

Model Penal Code 210.2(1)(b) - criminal homicide constitutes murder when . . . It is committed recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.

Question 18

What is the mens rea for involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 18

depends on the jurisdiction; can mean either recklessness, gross negligence, or ordinary negligence.

Question 19

What is the difference between recklessness and negligence?

Answer 19

Recklessness requires conscious disregard. Negligence is just not knowing. (Welansky - Coconut Grove nightclub fire)

Question 20

What is ordinary negligence?

Answer 20

Ordinary negligence is a failure to exercise ordinary caution. Ordinary Caution is the kind of caution that a man of reasonable prudence would exercise under the same or similar conditions.

Question 21

What is the felony murder rule?

Answer 21

one is guilty of murder if a death results from conduct during the commission or attempted commission of any felony.

Must determine whether the felony was inherently dangerous. Must look to the elements of the felony in the abstract, not the defendant’s specific conduct.

Court says that there are two standards:
1. High probability of death, or
2. Substantial risk that someone will be killed
(James - making meth)

Res gestae - two parts:

1. Felony and homicide must be close in time and distance
2. There is a causal connection between the felony and homicide.
   - Felony must generally be the “but for” and proximate cause of the death

Question 22

How long during the commission of a felony does the felony murder rule apply?

Answer 22

Court adopts the rule that “homicide is committed in the perpetration of the felony if the killing and the felony are parts of one continuous transaction.” Getting away is part of the burglary.

(James - burglary defendant kills victim with his car while escaping the store)

Question 23

King case - what is required for proximate cause?

Answer 23

The killing must have been done by the defendant or by an accomplice or confederate or by one acting in furtherance of the felonious undertaking.

1. Only acts causing death which are committed by those involved in the felony can be the basis for a conviction
2. The act causing death must result from some effort to further the felony before malice can be imputed in the act
3. There must be some act attributable to the felons which causes death.