“Murder was the case that they gave me…” at MHough

     Ever wonder what constitutes different degrees of homicide, or what they are? I know have always been confused by the many different terms: manslaughter, murder one, capital murder, third degree murder, etc, etc. So, in the name of curiosity, guised in the cloak of investigative web blogging, I decided to find out.

     First, let’s start off by defining the term homicide. By definition homicide is quite simply “the killing of one human being by another”. However, in the great US legal system, the term homicide represents a genus of 3 different types of offenses: murder, manslaughter, and justifiable homicide. So let’s look further into each one of these 3 offenses.
     Murder by definition is “an intentional unlawful act with a design to kill and fatal consequences. Generally, an intention to cause great bodily harm is considered indistinguishable from an intention to kill.” Hold on it’s about to get tricky. Before 1972, most states defined 2 degrees of murder, 1st degree and 2nd degree. These were divined from an old Pennsylvanian law dating back to 1794 that stated “Murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, shall be deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree.” So one could say that “1st degree murder is murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson.” And second degree murder is “murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation.”
     Nice and neat huh? Well, not so fast. Once states starting enforcing the death penalty, they needed to define whether 1st degree murder was eligible for the most serious punishments, such as death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. This split 1st degree murder into 2 other degrees, one punishable by death and the other not, which, in effect, left us with 3 degrees of murder. So, to summarize broadly, 1st degree murder is defined as premeditated murder or murder with special circumstances (such as the killing of a police officer, judge, or witness, multiple murders, torture, etc.) and is punishable by death or life in prison without parole. 2nd degree murder is any murder that is not 1st degree murder, does not include any “special circumstances”, or is not premeditated. And last, 3rd degree murder is all other types of murder. Confused yet? Well, other states such as California only define 2 degrees of murder: 1st degree murder (which leads to life in prison), 1st degree murder with special circumstances (which leads to death), and second degree murder. Whew!
     Now let’s move on to manslaughter which is defined as “the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought or premeditation, or while in the heat of passion, or on sudden provocation”. Here the difference between murder and homicide is premeditation, willful disregard of life, and state of mind. Manslaughter is considered less of an offense and is defined in two ways, voluntary and involuntary.
     Voluntary manslaughter is a homicide committed in the “heat of passion” or “provocation”. These are the popular scenarios in which a man comes home to find his wife in bed with another man, or he finds out his child was molested and kills the accused. Here the difference between murder and manslaughter is mitigated by the circumstances and state of mind.
     Involuntary manslaughter is “manslaughter resulting from the failure to perform a legal duty expressly required to safeguard human life, from the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or from the commission of a lawful act involving a risk of injury or death that is done in an unlawful, reckless, or grossly negligent manner”. There are 4 major types of involuntary manslaughter: criminal negligence, recklessness, vehicular (or intoxication), and misdemeanor.
     And finally, we’re left with justifiable homicide which is a legal homicide. Some of the circumstances that warrant justifiable homicide are war, self-defense without option of retreat, or to prevent a very serious crime, such as rape, armed robbery, or murder. But be warned, justifiable homicide is a gray area so don’t go out shooting kids for walking on your lawn just yet!
     Well, if you’re not completely confused, maybe you learned a little about homicide and murder, and now can sound like a legal guru when you’re watching Law and Order with your friends!