Murder, Homicide, Manslaughter

HOMICIDE :

Homicide in Laymans is the killing of one person by another person.  Under common law, homicide has three classifications.

justifiable homicide:

The first classification is justifiable homicide.  Essentially, this is murder for a good reason . This includes self defense, defense of others, or at the hands of an on-duty the police officer shooting a perpetrator during a crime. Castle doctrine or castle rule also fall under this category.

Excusable homicide:

Excusable homicide is the second classification that falls under homicide.  For example,  someone is being attacked and they kill their attacker, this murder can fall under excusable homicide if the victim did not use a dangerous weapon or a cruel way. If the attacker escapes and the victim encounters him later that night and then murders him, is not an excusable homicide.

criminal homicide:

Lastly there is criminal homicide this includes criminally negligent homicide murder and manslaughter.

Criminally negligent homicide

Criminally negligent homicide is best known as you should have known better this type of homicide is when the accused has no intent to kill but ignores risks and warnings and a fatality occurs the prosecutor does not need to prove that the defendant knew the risks only that it was obvious risk  

The prosecutor must also show proof of causation a correlation must be made between the negligent actions taken by the defendant and the fidelity of the victim

Murder

First degree/ capital

Capital murder, also known as first degree murder, is the most severe type of murder. Murder usually receives this category when it is deliberant .The murderer, made a clear-headed decision to kill and some form of planning or premeditation was present. In NY, in order to be convicted of 1st degree murder there must be some aggravating circumstance such as: the killing of a judge, an inmate when you’re already in for murder charges, more than one killing in a 24 hour time period, the killing of a jury member or a witness, someone on the police force.. etc.

Second-degree murder is explained with an element referred to as malice. Malice is defined as ; doing a harmful act with no legal excuse and without just cause but without the presence of premeditation or deliberateness.

If a person gets angry and shoot someone with a gun he keeps in his desk for protection this would constitute a 2nd° because he never planned to kill his victim.

Felony murder:

Felony murder is a murder that occurs as a result of a different crime in progress. This murder is not usually planned or intended.  The murder was collateral damage to the indented crime. The standard is “with in the pursuit of the underlying felony.”

Manslaughter :

Voluntary :  “ heat of passion”

This killing occurs when a reasonable person becomes enraged with emotions and becomes mentally disrupt. If a husband walks in and his wife cheating and grabs his son's baseball bat off the floor and hits the man which causes a fatality, this crime under voluntary manslaughter.

He did not intend to kill anyone when coming home.  It was in the heat of the moment.

Judges have leeway when sentencing people convicted of manslaughter but the usual serving time in prison is about 10 years.

Involuntary manslaughter:

Involuntary manslaughter is very similar to negligent homicide. It is when the killing was accidental or unintentional usually performed under a low level felony or an unlawful act.

An example would be driving under the influence and hitting a pedestrian.  This offense usually carries a sentence with a minimum of 10 months in jail or prison, plus fines and probation.