Homicide

Question 1

Definition

Answer 1

Homicide is the killing of a living being by another living being:

(1) Animals cannot commit a homicide, nor is killing an animal homicide;
(2) The victim cannot already be dead;
(3) Suicide is not homicide although assisting someone else in committing suicide can be a homicide.

Question 2

Causation

Answer 2

Homicide crimes require both forms of causation:

(1) Actual or “but for” causation;
(2) Proximate causation—i.e., the defendant’s act is a foreseeable cause of the victim’s death. The death is the natural and probable result of the conduct.

For example, if the defendant shoots the victim, and the defendant dies in the hospital due to negligence, the death is foreseeable.

By contrast, if the defendant’s victim committed suicide because she was defrauded by the defendant, the defendant is not the proximate cause of the victim’s death.

Question 3

Consent

Answer 3

Consent is not a defense to any type of homicide. Consequently, assisted suicide is a homicide by the assister exception in jurisdictions that permit assisted suicide.

Question 4

First-degree murder

Answer 4

A specific-intent crime typically defined as either:

(1) A deliberate and premeditated murder; or
(2) A killing that results during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony—e.g., when felony murder is classified as first-degree murder.

Question 5

Common law murder: definition

Answer 5

Common law murder is generally defined as:

(1) With malice aforethought, although intent can be formed in the moment before the killing;
(2) An unlawful killing of another human being—i.e., common law murder does not include a lawful killing such as a state execution or a police officer’s use of deadly force in some circumstances.

Question 6

Common law murder: malice

Answer 6

There are four kinds of malice:

(1) Intent to kill—i.e., the defendant acted with the desire that the victim end up dead;
(2) Intent to inflict serious bodily harm short of death, and the victim died;
(3) “Abandoned” or “depraved” heart;
(4) Felony murder.

Question 7

Manslaughter

Answer 7

All unlawful killings of another human being that are not first-degree murder or common law murder.

Question 8

Manslaughter: voluntary

Answer 8

When a defendant intends to kill the victim but his state of mind is less blameworthy than murder, e.g., “heat of passion” or “under extreme emotional disturbance.”

The test is whether the situation is one which most people would act without thinking and without time to cool off.

Although discovery of adultery by a spouse usually constitutes adequate provocation, it is highly unlikely that simple knowledge of infidelity would be adequate provocation.

Question 9

Manslaughter: involuntary

Answer 9

Involuntary manslaughter includes:

(1) A criminally negligent killing—i.e., more than ordinary negligence and less than reckless indifference;
(2) A killing of someone while committing a crime other than those covered by felony murder, i.e., misdemeanor manslaughter; or
(3) Causing a death while engaging in criminally negligent conduct, e.g., traffic deaths.

The doctrine of transferred intent is applicable to involuntary manslaughter.

Question 10

Common law murder: depraved heart

Answer 10

A defendant acts with a depraved heart when she:

(1) acts with a cavalier disregard for human life;
(2) realizes that her conduct is very risky, unless she does not appreciate the risk because she is voluntarily intoxicated; and
(3) a death resulted.

The defendant need not have any intent with respect to the outcome of her actions.

Question 11

Transferred provocation

Answer 11

Under the doctrine of transferred provocation, when a defendant accidentally kills the wrong person, she will be guilty of voluntary manslaughter if that would have been her crime had she killed the provoker.