Common Law Homicide

Homicide: Unlawful killing of a human being

- Human Begin: A person born alive
- Killed/Dead: Brain dead (allows for patient to be taken off of life support)
Types of Homicide
- Murder
- 1st Degree Murder
- 2nd Degree Murder
- Manslaughter
- Voluntary Manslaughter
- Involuntary Manslaughter
Murder
- 1st Degree Murder
- 2nd degree murder is elevated to 1st if any of the following are proven:
- Killing was premeditated and deliberate
- Premeditation: the killer reflected upon and thought about the
killing in advance
- 3 factors: motive, planning, manner of killing (like
specifically targeting a vital part of the body)
- Some jurisdictions recognize a wink of an eye doctrine
where premeditation can occur in an instant
- Deliberate: With a cool head
- Killing was committed using and of the following means (specified in
statute):
- Lying in wait
- Poison
- Torture
- Killing an Officer
- Killing occurred during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an
enumerated felony (included in the statute) (Felony Murder Rule when
raised to 1st degree)
- Typically
- Rape
- Robbery
- Arson
- Burglary
- Kidnapping
- 2nd Degree Murder
- Murder is presumed to be second degree unless elevated by factors laid out under
1st Degree
- Unlawful killing of a human being by another human being with malice
aforethought
- Malice aforethought imputed established by:
- Intent to kill
- Inferred from circumstantial evidence
- Death is a natural and probable cause
- Used a deadly weapon aimed at a vital part of the body
- Deadly weapon is designed to cause death or
serious bodily injury or an instrument that is used or
intended to be used to cause death or serious bodily
injury
- Intent to cause serious bodily injury
- Risk or death or significant and long-term substantial
impairment of health
- Killed with a depraved heart
- Express malice
- If unintentional- involuntary manslaughter recklessness or
gross negligence
- Defendant acted with gross recklessness and manifested an
extreme indifference to human life
- Gross recklessness: defendant was aware that his
conduct creased a substantial and unjustifiable risk
of death
- Felony Murder Rule
- Killed in the court of committing a non-inherently
dangerous felony
- Felony Murder Rule
- Strict Liability (intent to commit the felony substitutes for the mens rea)
- Accomplices in the felony may also be conceited if there weren;t the one
who did the killing
- Agency limitation: if a third party kills someone then FMR doesn’t
apply
- Limitations:
- Inherently dangerous felony
- Res Gestae Limit
- The felony and the homicide must be close in time and
distance
- One continuous transaction (until felon reaches
place of temporary safety)
 - Demands a causal connection between the felony and
homicide
- “But-for” test
- Direct-Causal Link (no intervening circumstances)
- The killing was done in furtherance of the felony
- Merger Doctrine
- Felonies that are assaultive in nature “merge” with
the homicide and cannot serve as the basis for a
felony murder conviction
- If the felony is assaultive the FMR is inapplicable
and the government must prove malice aforethought
some other way rather than FMR (intent to kill,
intent to cause serious bodily harm, depraved heart
murder)
Manslaughter
- Unlawful killing without malice or aforethought
- Voluntary Manslaughter
- Reduced from 2nd degree murder through a partial defenses such as imperfect self
defense, diminished capacity, and provocation or heat of passion if there was a
causal connection between the provocation and killing
- Provocation - Categorical Test: killing in response to any of the following
- An aggravated assault or battery
- Unreasonable self-defense
- The observation of a serious crime against a close relative
- Catching one’s spouse in the act of adultery
- An illegal arrest
- Mutual combat
- Mere words are never sufficient to constitute adequate provocation
unless there were cumulative verbal provocations over a period of
time (which will sometimes be sufficient)
- Heath of Passion - Reasonable Man Test
- Defendant acted ina heat of passion
- Violent, intense, high wrought
- Defendant was reasonable provoked
- Reasonable person would’ve been provoked to act
rashly/without judgment
- Defendant did not have sufficient time to “cool off”
- A reasonable person in the defendant’s position would not have
had time to “cool-off”
- Causal Connection
 - Defendant killed the person provoking them, not a third
party/bystander
- Involuntary Manslaughter
- States are not consistent regarding the mental state
- Many court use “criminal negligence” but are unclear on a definition, most agree
that it is something more than ordinary civil negligence, but are split over what it
means something akin to “gross negligence” or “recklessness”
- Different between a reckless state of mind and a negligent state of mind turns on
whether or not the defendant was aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk and
chose to disregard it (negligence does not require such awareness)
- Killing with gross negligence OR wantonness/recklessness, OR during the
commission of a misdemeanor
- Gross Negligence: a failure to perceive a risk
- If that failure proximately causes death=involuntary manslaughter
- Wanton/Recklessness: aware of a risk that could potentially cause harm,
but chose not to take ordinary care
- Unintentional
MPC Homicide 210
- Types:
- Murder
- Manslaughter
- Negligent Homicide
- Murder
- Does not recognize degrees of murder
- Criminal Homicide done either purposely, knowingly, or recklessly
- Purposely
- It was the defendant’s conscious objective to cause death
- Knowingly
- Defendant was aware that death was practically certain to occur
- Recklessly “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the
value of human life
- Presumed if the
- Circumstances that come with a presumption of recklessness:
- Robbery
- Rape
- Arson
- Burglary
- Kidnapping
- Or felonious escape
- Manslaughter
- Killing is committed recklessly or under extreme mental or emotional disturbance
- Recklessly but without circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to
the value of human life
- Conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that
death will occur
- Extreme Mental or Emotional Disturbance
- The extreme or emotional disturbance must have been reasonable
- Reasonableness will be determined from the viewpoint of a
reasonable person in defendant’s position under the
circumstances as the defendant believed them to be
- Objective test
- Negligent Homicide
- A killing that is caused negligently
- negligence : failure to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk such
that the defendant’s conduct amount to a gross deviation from the standard
of care that reasonable person would’ve taken in the defendant’s situation
- Objective test
- MPC Felony Murder Rule
- MPC doesn’t have it BUT has the felony murder rule as a “rebuttable
presumption” if it meets the criteria of “during a specific enumerated felony”
- Recklessness and indifference is presumed if the actor in engaged or is an
accomplice to the commission of, attempt to commit, or flight after committing or
attempting to commit, certain other crimes