Murder

Question 1

Malice

Answer 1

• A person kills with malice if they possess any one of four states of mind.
  
  1. intent to kill a human being (must be without justification, excuse, or mitigating circumstances)
  2. intent to inflict grievous bodily injury (nearly always M2)
  3. extremely reckless disregard for value of human life (depraved heart)
  4. commission of a felony during which a death results (felony murder)
• these have in common the actor’s extreme indifference to the vlaue of human life
• intent is ‘express’ if there is intent to kill
• intent is ‘implied’ if there the other three

Question 2

Homicide

Answer 2

• The killing of a human being by another human being.
• a legally neutral term- homicide may be innocent or criminal since homicides may be justified, excused, or criminal
  *

Question 3

Common Law Murder

Answer 3

• the killing of a human being by another human being with malice aforethought

Question 4

Common Law Manslaughter

Answer 4

• “an unlawful killing of a human being by another human being without malice aforethought” (but without an excuse or justification)
• three types of unlawful killlings constitute manslaughter
  
  1. intentional killing committed in a ‘sudden heat of passion’ as the result of an ‘adequate provocation’
  2. unintentional killing that is result of “an act, lawful in itself but done in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection”
  3. unintentional killing that occurs during the commission or attempted commission of an unlawful act (misdemeanor)

Question 5

Statuatory First-Degree Murder

Answer 5

• must be intentional killing that was also willful, deliberate and premeditated
• some courts say that this simply means ‘intentional’
• others say that ‘willful’ means intentional, but deliberate and premeditated mean something more
• thus, legislative division of murder into degrees means that:
  
  • intentional, deliberate, and premediated killing is M1
  • intentional is M2

Question 6

Natural-and-Probable Consequences Rule

Answer 6

• any intentional killing involves subjective fault- must prove that D formed the actual intent to kill rather than simply a reasonable person would have known conduct would result in death
• usually proved by syllogism that:
  
  1. ordinary people intend the natural and proabable consequences of their actions; and
  2. D is an ordinary person; and
  3. therefore, D intended the natural and probable consequences of his action

Question 7

Deliberate vs. Premeditate- Examined

Answer 7

• some courts treat deliberate as a synonym for intentional
• other courts submerge deliberate into the element of premeditation.
• it takes time to deliberate
  
  • it is impossible for a person to deliberate unless they premeditate
  • it is possible to premeditate without deliberating
• Premeditation involves the quantity of time a person puts into formulating their design
• Deliberation speaks to the quality of the thought
• Premeditate means to think about beforehand, but law is divided on how much prior thought must go into a homicide before it becomes premeditated.
  *

Question 8

Corpus Delicti

Answer 8

• ‘body of the crime’
• To establish the corpus delicti in a homicide case, the State must introduce, in its case-in-chief, evidence independent of D’s inculpatory statements that raises a reasonable inference that the death in question was caused by criminal conduct.
• Layman’s terms: When your sole basis of proof is the D’s statement, then you have to have something else as proof of criminal activity

Question 9

Felony Murder

Answer 9

• Dressler- One is guilty of murder if a death results during the commission or attempted commision of any felony.
• Nickell-
  
  • D alone or with others, commits or attempts to commit a BARRK felonly, or another inheritly dangerous felony; AND
  • D or accomplice, in course of and in furtherance of that felony, causes the death of any person

Question 10

Felony Murder Checklist

Answer 10

• Is underlying felony Inherently dangerous
  
  • in the abstract test
  • facts of the case test
• Is felony enumerated in statute or a BARRK (automatically inherently dangerous)
• Is felony independent of the killing (if not it merges with the homicide and no F.M.)
• Is killing made in the furtherance of the felony (timeline- fleeing, during, has felon reached apparent place of safety, etc.)
• was there an agent or co-felon/non-agent cause of death?

Question 11

Felony Murder Limits

Answer 11

• applies whether a felon kills intentionally, recklessly, negligencly, accidently, or unforseeably- mens rea doesn’t matter
• a felon may be unaware that his crime is inherently dangerous and may still be convicted.
• rule only applies if underlying felony is independent of homicide
• if not, it merges with the homicde and cannot be felony murder
• merger doctrine applies when grievious bodily harm is inflicted on victim
• ‘during and in furtherance of’- can be from the attempt to when D reaches a place of inherent safety
• felony must have occured before the killing
• there must be more than a coincidental connection between the felony and the killing

Question 12

Felony Murder Rule- Killing by a non-felon

Answer 12

Agency approach

• when a killing is commited by an adversary to the crime (non-felon) no felony murder rule
• when killing is commited by an agent of the non-shooter (accomplice to felon) then felony murder rule applies

Shield Doctrine

• felon is liable for FMR when he uses a 3rd person as a shield

Proximate Cause approach

• felon is liable for ANY dealth for which felony is proximate cause, regardless of the shooter