Manslaughter (United States law)

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Manslaughter is a crime in the United States. Definitions can vary among jurisdictions, but manslaughter is invariably the act of causing the death of another person in a manner less culpable than murder. Three types of unlawful killings constitute manslaughter. First, there is voluntary manslaughter which is an intentional homicide committed in "sudden heat of passion" as the result of adequate provocation. Second, there is the form of involuntary manslaughter which is an unintentional homicide that was committed in a criminally negligent manner. Finally, there is the form of involuntary manslaughter which is an unintentional homicide that occurred during the commission or attempted commission of an unlawful act which does not amount to a felony (thereby triggering the felony-murder rule).

Contents

Laws in the United States

Voluntary manslaughter

Voluntary manslaughter involves the intentional killing of a person in which the offender did not have prior intent to kill. [1] The defendant may have the intention of causing serious injury short of death.

The following are some examples of defenses that may be raised to mitigate murder to voluntary manslaughter:

Provocation

A killing that occurs after adequate provocation by an event which would cause a reasonable person to lose self-control is voluntary manslaughter. There must not be a cooling off period negating provocation. If there is an interval between the provocation and killing sufficient to allow the passion of a reasonable person to cool, the homicide is not manslaughter, but murder. [1]

In the United States, jurisdictions vary on what counts as adequate provocation. Traditionally, there were five categories which constituted adequate provocation: (1) observation of sexual marital infidelity, (2) assault and battery, (3) mutual combat, (4) witnessing harm to a loved one, and (5) resistance to an illegal arrest. [2] Courts have since moved on to less restrictive rules which look at whether the provocation was of such a nature that it would cause an ordinary person to enter a heightened state of passion and lose their self-control. [2] Nonetheless, regardless of the rule used to determine adequate provocation, under the common law words alone are almost always never enough. However, that does not apply to jurisdictions which use the Model Penal Code. [2]

Imperfect self-defense

In some jurisdictions, a person who acted in self-defense with an honest but unreasonable belief that deadly force was necessary to do so can reduce a murder charge to one of voluntary manslaughter or deliberate homicide committed without criminal malice. (Malice is found if a person is killed intentionally and without legal excuse or mitigation.) [3]

Diminished capacity

Diminished capacity is a defense that may negate the mental state of "malice". If a jurisdiction recognizes that a person can kill without justification but also without any evil intent, for example due to a mental defect or mental illness, that jurisdiction may define the person's crime as something less than murder. This partial defense is only available in some U.S. jurisdictions and not others; whereas the complete defense of insanity is available throughout the U.S. but is rarely used because it is more difficult to prove. [4]

Involuntary manslaughter

Involuntary manslaughter is the killing of another person without the intent to kill, but where the person's death occurs as a result of the negligent or reckless actions of the defendant.

Constructive manslaughter

In the United States, constructive manslaughter, also known as unlawful act manslaughter, is a lesser version of felony murder, and covers a person who causes the death of another while committing a misdemeanor  –that is, a violation of law that does not rise to the level of a felony. Such a law may allow for conviction for the homicide if the misdemeanor law that was violated by the defendant is a law designed to protect human life. [5]

Criminally negligent manslaughter

In some U.S. jurisdictions, if a person is so reckless as to "manifest extreme indifference to human life", the defendant may be guilty of aggravated assault as well as of involuntary manslaughter. [6]

In some U.S. jurisdictions, malice may be found only if the defendant's actions reflect willful or depraved indifference to human life. In such a case, even though the injury to the victim was not intended, the wrongdoer may be guilty of second degree murder. [7] [8]

Vehicular manslaughter

Vehicular manslaughter is a criminal charge that may be imposed upon a person who causes a death through criminal negligence, or a violation of certain traffic safety laws. A common use of the vehicular manslaughter laws involves prosecution for a death caused by driving under the influence of intoxicating substances (determined by excessive blood alcohol content levels set by individual U.S. states), although an independent infraction (such as driving with a suspended driver's license), or negligence, is usually also required. [9] [10]

In Wisconsin, a person who causes death with any type of motor vehicle while legally intoxicated may be liable and charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. Culpability lies with the perpetrator. [11] The maximum penalty for homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle is twenty-five years in prison, but with a prior OWI offense the maximum penalty may be increased to forty years in prison. [12]

In the State of Texas, intoxication manslaughter is a distinctly defined offense. A person commits intoxication manslaughter if he, or she, operates a motor vehicle in a public place, operates an aircraft, a watercraft, or an amusement ride, or assembles a mobile amusement ride while intoxicated and, by reason of that intoxication, causes the death of another by accident or mistake. [13]

Intoxication manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and other similar offenses require a lesser mens rea than other manslaughter offenses. Furthermore, the fact that the defendant is entitled to use the alcohol, controlled substance, drug, dangerous drug, or other substance, is no defense. [14] [15] For example, to prove intoxication manslaughter, it is not necessary to prove the person was negligent in causing the death of another, nor that they unlawfully used the substance that intoxicated them, but only that they were intoxicated, and operated a motor vehicle, and someone died as a result. [14]

The same principle of strict liability applies in New York for vehicular manslaughter in the second degree. [16]

Assisted suicide

In some U.S. states, assisted suicide is punishable as manslaughter, while others classify it as an independent criminal offense or as a form of murder. [17]

Terminology

As each state has its own statutes, law that cover the same criminal conduct may have different names. For example:

Case law

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder</span> Unlawful killing of a human with malice aforethought

Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Manslaughter is killing committed in the absence of malice, such as in the case of voluntary manslaughter brought about by reasonable provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, where it is recognized, is a killing that lacks all but the most attenuated guilty intent, recklessness.

The gay panic defense or homosexual advance defence is a victim blaming strategy of legal defense, which refers to a situation in which a heterosexual individual charged with a violent crime against a homosexual individual claims they lost control and reacted violently because of an unwanted sexual advance that was made upon them. A defendant will use available legal defenses against assault and murder, with the aim of seeking an acquittal, a mitigated sentence, or a conviction of a lesser offense. A defendant may allege to have found the same-sex sexual advances so offensive or frightening that they were provoked into reacting, were acting in self-defense, were of diminished capacity, or were temporarily insane, and that this circumstance is exculpatory or mitigating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homicide</span> Killing of a human by another human

Homicide is an act in which a human causes the death of another human. A homicide requires only a volitional act or an omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no intent to cause harm. Homicides can be divided into many overlapping legal categories, such as murder, manslaughter, justifiable homicide, assassination, killing in war, euthanasia, and capital punishment, depending on the circumstances of the death. These different types of homicides are often treated very differently in human societies; some are considered crimes, while others are permitted or even ordered by the legal system.

In criminal law, the intoxication defense is a defense by which a defendant may claim diminished responsibility on the basis of substance intoxication. Where a crime requires a certain mental state to break the law, those under the influence of an intoxicating substance may be considered to have reduced liability for their actions. With regard to punishment, intoxication may be a mitigating factor that decreases a prison or jail sentence. Numerous factors affect the applicability of the defense.

In law, provocation is when a person is considered to have committed a criminal act partly because of a preceding set of events that might cause a reasonable individual to lose self control. This makes them less morally culpable than if the act was premeditated (pre-planned) and done out of pure malice. It "affects the quality of the actor's state of mind as an indicator of moral blameworthiness."

In criminal law, diminished responsibility is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were "diminished" or impaired.

Vehicular homicide is a crime that involves the death of a person other than the driver as a result of either criminally negligent or murderous operation of a motor vehicle.

Culpable homicide is a categorisation of certain offences in various jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations which involves the homicide either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a particular jurisdiction has defined the offence. Unusually for those legal systems which have originated or been influenced during rule by the United Kingdom, the name of the offence associates with Scots law rather than English law.

In criminal law, automatism is a rarely used criminal defence. It is one of the mental condition defences that relate to the mental state of the defendant. Automatism can be seen variously as lack of voluntariness, lack of culpability (unconsciousness) or excuse. Automatism means that the defendant was not aware of his or her actions when making the particular movements that constituted the illegal act.

Malice aforethought is the "premeditation" or "predetermination" required as an element of some crimes in some jurisdictions and a unique element for first-degree or aggravated murder in a few. Insofar as the term is still in use, it has a technical meaning that has changed substantially over time.

Negligent homicide is a criminal charge brought against a person who, through criminal negligence, allows another person to die. Other times, an intentional killing may be negotiated down to this lesser charge as a compromised resolution of a murder case, as might occur in the context of the intentional shooting of an unarmed man after a traffic altercation. Negligent homicide can be distinguished from involuntary manslaughter by its mens rea requirement: negligent homicide requires criminal negligence, while manslaughter requires recklessness.

Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender acted during the heat of passion, under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they cannot reasonably control their emotions. Voluntary manslaughter is one of two main types of manslaughter, the other being involuntary manslaughter.

In the English law of homicide, manslaughter is a less serious offence than murder, the differential being between levels of fault based on the mens rea or by reason of a partial defence. In England and Wales, a common practice is to prefer a charge of murder, with the judge or defence able to introduce manslaughter as an option. The jury then decides whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of either murder or manslaughter. On conviction for manslaughter, sentencing is at the judge's discretion, whereas a sentence of life imprisonment is mandatory on conviction for murder. Manslaughter may be either voluntary or involuntary, depending on whether the accused has the required mens rea for murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manslaughter</span> Homicide criminal charge less culpable than murder

Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th century BC.

In the field of criminal law, there are a variety of conditions that will tend to negate elements of a crime, known as defenses. The label may be apt in jurisdictions where the accused may be assigned some burden before a tribunal. However, in many jurisdictions, the entire burden to prove a crime is on the prosecution, which also must prove the absence of these defenses, where implicated. In other words, in many jurisdictions the absence of these so-called defenses is treated as an element of the crime. So-called defenses may provide partial or total refuge from punishment.

In the United States, the law for murder varies by jurisdiction. In many US jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first-degree murder and felony murder are the most serious, followed by second-degree murder and, in a few states, third-degree murder, which in other states is divided into voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter such as reckless homicide and negligent homicide, which are the least serious, and ending finally in justifiable homicide, which is not a crime. However, because there are at least 52 relevant jurisdictions, each with its own criminal code, this is a considerable simplification.

<i>Criminal law of the United States</i>

The criminal law of the United States is a manifold system of laws and practices that connects crimes and consequences. In comparison, civil law addresses non-criminal disputes. The system varies considerably by jurisdiction, but conforms to the US Constitution.

The Texas Penal Code is the principal criminal code of the U.S. state of Texas. It was originally enacted in 1856 and underwent substantial revision in 1973, with the passage of the Revised Penal Code, in large part based on the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code.

State v. Dumlao is a 1986 criminal Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals case appealing a murder conviction on the ground that the court's decision to not issue a jury instruction for voluntary manslaughter based on extreme emotional disturbance was a reversible error. The court found that the Model Penal Code required a subjective analysis of whether provocation is adequate from the defendant's perspective. Based on medical testimony that Dumlao suffered from "paranoid personality disorder", which included symptoms of "unwarranted suspiciousness" and hypersensitivity, the Court granted Dumlao's appeal, holding that his actions on the night he killed his mother in law had been "reasonable" from his perspective.

References

  1. 1 2 "Voluntary Manslaughter Overview". FindLaw. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Dressler, Joshua (2015). Understanding Criminal Law (7 ed.). New Providenc, NJ. pp. 436–460. ISBN   978-1-63283-865-0. OCLC   919452368.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ↑ Logan, James C. (1935). "Imperfect Self-Defense". Washington University Law Review. 20: 131. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Diminished Capacity". Wex. Cornell Law School. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  5. ↑ See, e.g., "Comber v. US 584 A. 2d 26 (D.C. 1990) (en banc)". Google Scholar. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ See, e.g., "18 Pa.C.S.A. Sec. 2702. Aggravated assault". WestLaw. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  7. ↑ See, e.g., subsection (b), "New York Penal Code, Sec. 125.25. Murder in the second degree". New York State Senate. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  8. ↑ See also, "State v. Fenner, 664 So. 2d 1315 (La. App. 4 Cir. 1995)". Google Scholar. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  9. ↑ See, e.g., "New York Penal Code, Sec. 125.13. Vehicular manslaughter in the first degree". New York State Senate. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  10. ↑ See also "California Penal Code, Sec. 192(c)". California Legislative Information. California Legislature. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Wisconsin Statutes, Sec. 940.09. Homicide by intoxicated use of vehicle or firearm". Wisconsin State Legislature. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  12. ↑ "OWI and Related Alcohol and Drug Penalties" (PDF). Wisconsin DOT. Government of Wisconsin. March 22, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Texas Penal Code, Sec. 49.08. Intoxication Manslaughter". Texas State Legislature. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  14. 1 2 "Texas Penal Code, Sec. 49.10. No Defense". Texas State Legislature. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  15. ↑ See also, "Nelson v. State, 149 S.W.3d 206, 211 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 2004, no pet.)". Google Scholar. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  16. ↑ "New York Penal Code, Sec. 125.12. Vehicular manslaughter in the second degree". New York State Senate. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Assisted Suicide Laws in the United States". Patients Rights Council. January 6, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  18. ↑ "New York Penal Code, Sec.125.20. Manslaughter in the first degree". New York State Senate. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
  19. ↑ "New York Penal Code, Sec.125.15. Manslaughter in the second degree". New York State Senate. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
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