Homicide Flashcards
Types of Murder
first Degree
Second Degree
types of Manslaughter
Voluntary Manslaughter
Involuntary Manslaughter
Vehicular Manslaughter
Murder
1) the unlawful
2) killing
3) of another human being
4) with malice aforethought
Manslaughter
1) the unlawful
2) killing
3) of another human being
4) WITHOUT malice aforethought
Human being
Born alive, not a fetus
Malice Aforethought
1) Intent to kill
2) Intent to do serious bodily harm
3) depraved heart
4) felony murder
Malice
wickedness of deposition, hardness of heart, wanton conduct, cruelty, recklessness of consequences, and/ or a mind without regard to social duty
Express: proof of malicious thoughts or activity
Implied- Implied from gross recklessness or extreme indifference to value of human life
Presumption- often presumed where use of deadly weapon on vital part of victim’s body
Homicide
• A person is guilty of criminal homicide if he purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently caused the death of another human being.
Criminal homicide is murder, manslaughter, or negligent homicide.
First Degree Murder
need Premeditation and deliberation
-Intentional Killing- specific intent to kill
P & D – actual prior thought and reflection
Time- key element
Majority- no time is too short
Minority- must be meaningful deliberation
Deliberation: the mental process of thinking beforehand, deliberation, reflection, weighing or reasoning for a period of time, however short”
Factors for consideration for deliberation
- the amount of time involved
- what Δ did before the killing (planning)
- motive
- Δ’s prior relationship with victim
- nature of the killing
- what Δ did after the killing
CL: Voluntary Manslaughter
Killing without malice
mitigated murder
Mitigation usually arises because the defendant was found to have been reasonably provoked and to have acted in the heat of passion, or because the defendant honestly believed he or she needed to kill for protection purposes, but that belief was objectively unreasonable
Provocation Defense of “heat of passion”
MPC Manslaughter
Criminal homicide constitutes manslaughter when:
a. it is committed recklessly; or
b. 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. The reasonableness of such explanation or excuse shall be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the actor’s situation under the circumstances as he believes them to be.
Provocation Defense
Murder in the heat of passion. Mitigates murder to manslaughter
Elements
a. Sudden, intense passion resulting from provocation by victim so serious it would create passion in reasonable person.
i. Must be actual (subjective test); and
1. Does D think he was being provoked?
ii. Reasonable (objective test)
1. Is the feeling of provocation reasonable?
b. Cooling-off Period- no defense where reasonable “cooling-off period”
c. Adequate Provocation- CL: limited number of provocative acts;
i. today, almost any act that would provoke a reasonable person
d. Words- CL: words alone not enough to provoke;
i. Today- words can be enough
Wrong Victim- defense applies where killing of someone else in attempt to kill provoker
i. When provocation is offered as a mitigating defense, the burden of proof is upon the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not provoked.
Imperfect Defense
Traditional protective defense where belief in need to kill honest but unreasonable
a. Not all jurisdictions recognize it
i. Do not have reasonableness std here, more subjective
ii. There still has to be some resemblances of reasonableness though
Felony Murder
An intentional killing where the intent to kill is transferred from the accused’s intent to commit the dangerous felony at issue.
