Homicide Flashcards
3 Traditional Homicide Offenses
1) murder
2) voluntary manslaughter
3) involuntary manslaughter
Homicide Analysis
- Did D “cause” death of victim?
- If #1 answered “yes,” did D act with “malice aforethought?” [if so, murder unless –]
- If #1 and # 2 answered “yes,” was there also adequate provocation? [if so, voluntary manslaughter]
- If # 1 answered “yes” and # 2 answered “no,” did D either
- act with criminal negligence? [involuntary manslaughter]
- cause death while committing misdemeanor? [involuntary manslaughter]
Three Causation Issues
- “Factual” causation:
- “But for” acts of D, victim would not have died as and when he actually did die.
- Year-and-one-day rule
- Victim must die within a year and one day from the infliction of the injury.
- Proximate causation
- If no causation, D is often guilty of attempted murder.
Proximate Causation Rule
- Proximate causation exists if the victim’s death naturally results from the defendant’s actions,
- even if this occurs in an unexpected manner,
- unless the events are extremely unusual.
Superceding Event
Proximate causation is lacking if a “superseding” factor is interjected into the chain of causation.
Such a factor must be:
- independent of the defendant’s actions;
- unforeseeable; and
- the sole immediate cause of the victim’s death.
Causation of Already Dying Victim
- A defendant who simply speeds up death of dying victim does factually cause the victim’s death
Intended Death that Occurs in an Unexpected Way
(e.g. woman poisons her husband, he is about to die, when woman’s lover shoots him)
- If an intended death occurs in an unexpected way, there may be a lack of proximate causation.
- e.g. woman here would be guilty only of attempted murder because her lover’s actions were a superceding factor
Intervening event that only becomes a contributing cause of death
- Does not break the chain of proximate causation.
Murder
A killing is with “malice aforethought” and therefore murder if the defendant acted with:
- intent to kill; or
- intent to cause serious bodily injury; or
- awareness of extremely high risk that death will result (“abandoned and malignant heart” doctrine or “depraved mind” murder); or
- intent to commit a felony.
Intent to Kill for Murder
- If D acted with one of other malice mental states, intent to kill is not necessary for murder.
- Knowingly engaging in high risk activity can be malice.
Felony murder general rule
General Rule: Accidental deaths caused during commission of a felony are murder.
Felony Murder
Effect of D’s defense to underlying (predicate) felony
If the defendant has a defense to the underlying (predicate) felony, the accidental death cannot be felony murder.
Felony murder foreseeability requirement
- The death must have been foreseeable OR
- some courts instead require the felony to have been “dangerous” as committed.
Felony murder
Cofelon liability
All cofelons are guilty of a felony murder, if the death was foreseeable to them.
Felony Murder Merger Rule
- Felony murder cannot be based on felony assault (or battery) causing death of victim (“merges” into death of victim).
Felony Murder
Resisting Victims, Bystanders, and Unlucky Felons
- Many courts will not apply felony murder if the fatal shot was not fired by one of the felons (the “agency” rule).
- Courts are most reluctant to apply felony murder where person killed is one of the felons.
Degrees of Murder: Statutory Provisions
- Some statutory provisions divide murder into degrees. Most killings with “malice aforethought” are second degree murder. Some killings are first degree murder:
- certain felony murders
- premeditated killings
- Premeditation requires some conscious consideration over whether or not to kill.
Premeditation and Provoking Incidents
A provoking incident, even if not enough to reduce killing to voluntary manslaughter, may show absence of premeditation
Voluntary Manslaughter Elements
- An intentional killing that would otherwise be murder is reduced to voluntary manslaughter if three things are shown:
- objectively reasonable provocation;
- this actually caused the defendant to kill the victim; and
- D acted on that before an objectively sufficient cooling period elapsed.
- Some situations insufficient “as a matter of law”: best example—“mere words.”
Involuntary Manslaughter Elements
A killing is involuntary manslaughter if the defendant killed either:
- in the course of committing a misdemeanor; or
- with criminal negligence.
Criminal Negligence Standard
Where negligence is used for criminal liability, it requires more negligence than is necessary for civil liability.
Virginia Homicide Offenses
- Capital Murder
- First Degree Murder
- Second Degree Murder
- Felony Murder
- Felony Homicide
VA Capital Murder
Willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder committed under 14 different aggravating circumstances.
VA First Degree Murder
- Poison
- Lying in wait
- Imprisonment
- Starvation; or
- Any wilful, deliberate, and premeditated killing that does not fall within capital murder.
VA Second Degree Murder
- All murder is presumed to be second degree murder.
- The burden is on the prosecution to elevate it to first degree or capital murder
- the burden is on the defense to reduce it to manslaughter.
- Second degree murder consists of all murder that is neither capital nor first degree.
VA Felony Murder
Any murder committed, whether intentional or accidental, during the commission of or during an attempt to commit:
- Arson
- Rape
- Forcible sodomy
- Robbery
- Burglary
- Abduction
- Inanimate/animate object sexual penetration
VA Felony Murder Treatment
treated as first degree murder
VA felony murder causation
- A death that results not from actions of the felon, or
- from acts directly calculated to further the felony or necessitated by the felony,
- but from circumstances coincident to the felony, is not a felony murder.
VA Felony Homicide
- The accidental killing
- contrary to the intention of the parties
- while committing some non-enumerated felonious act.
VA Felony Homicide Causation
In determining whether a felony homicide has been committed, the critical factor is the existence of a causal connection between the felony and the accidental killing.
VA Voluntary Manslaughter
- Unlawful killing without malice (heat of passion)
- Example: A killing committed during mutual combat, in the heat of which the defendant struck a blow that killed the decedent.
VA Involuntary Manslaughter
A killing of one accidentally, contrary to the intention of the parties, either:
- During the performance of some unlawful but not felonious act; or
- During the performance of a lawful act amounting to criminal negligence.
