...Murder or Manslaughter Suzanne Feins Saint Leo University Murder or Manslaughter Death is a pretty routine part of life. How we die, however can play a role in how it may impact others lives. Some people die of old age, whereas other people will die from medical issues. When a person is taken from us by accident or on purpose, the court system(s) will seek justice for the victim. There are different levels of punishment for the people who take another person's life. One level of punishment in our court system is called first degree murder. First degree murder is considered the most heinous of acts. In order to convict the accused of first degree murder, the court must prove it was pre-mediated. This means the "murderers" are considered to have planned the event (Blinn, 1950). This is considered when someone is waiting on another person to arrive home to kill them or if someone was to poison the victim. Another way a person may be guilty of first degree murder is if a person dies a result of a violent act that was commit such as rape, robbery arson or burglary. Most cases are trial by a jury and depending on the states, it could sentence a person to spend life in prison or it could mean the death penalty. People who are convicted of first degree murder are sent to a maximum prison due to the nature of their crime. The next level of punishment we have is called second degree murder. Second degree murder is slightly different. Granted there still was a murder, but there...
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...Activity 1 After looking at the definitions of murder, homicide, first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter, I think that it would depend on what crime I committed if I was going to be charged as an adult. If the crime was well thought out and planned, then a juvenile has the "maturity" to plan something as an adult would so the juvenile should be charged as an adult would. If it wasn't premeditated and something that just happened, then I would think differently. Activity 2 Adult - a fully mature person; fully developed and mature. Juvenile - Immature or childish; a person who has not reached maturity. Child - A young human being between birth and puberty; acts childish, not mature. Juveniles are usually middle school age kids or young teens. Juveniles are usually just getting some independence. They can go places without their parents, get phones, unlike a child who needs the parent's help with almost everything. But, they are not always old enough to drive, vote, or have a job. They can be mouthy, head strong, and adventurous because they are growing up but aren't "grown up." They aren't mature enough to be an adult but more mature than a child. Homicide - A person who would intentionally shove another person off a cliff has committed homicide. This could be planned before hand or just happen. Either way, the one person intends to kill the other person. Murder - A man plans to rob a bank and takes...
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...A School Resource Officer(SRO) is a job that I grew to like during my internship at OCSO. My first weeks at my internship I worked a lot with SROs. My daily duties consisted of monitoring students, writing reports, and being a mentor for students. Also, I assisted several officers with varies projects, in which we presented to the students. Sheriff Murant informed me that our alternate goal is to creating and maintaining a safe ,secure ,and suitable learning environment for students,teachers, and staff. Every since I have started working with the different SROs , I can truly say that the work really hard to make sure every duty is completed with proficiency. I observed how a lot of students looked up to Sheriff Murant as a mother. They never seem to feel afraid to come a talk to her about any problems that they encountered. Also, at Howard Middle School I observed how the students respected all rules that were given to them. I enjoyed working with the students and hearing their stories. A Student Resource Officer is a job I think I would master and become comfortable in. A Student Resource Officer (SRO) is a law enforcement officer who is assigned to a middle or high school. Their main goal is to prevent juvenile delinquency by having a positive relationship with the youth . SRO of Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office( OCSO) have a program that places law enforcement in schools. Their goal is to create a safe, secure, and functional learning environment for the students, teachers...
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...“is the killing of one human being by another human being” (Schmalleger & Dolatowski, 2010). There are three different types of homicide, which are justifiable, excusable, and criminal. Common law puts criminal homicide into two groups: murder and manslaughter. The Model Penal Code categorizes criminal homicide into murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide. Justifiable homicides are legal killings acceptable by law, and society. These killings consist of a state-ordered execution military killing of an enemy solider while serving on active duty. Any death caused by legitimate self-defense can also be an excusable homicide. An excusable homicide is “those homicides that may involve some fault but not enough for the act to be considered criminal” (Schmalleger & Dolatowski, 2010). An excusable homicide could be one in which a driver of a motor vehicle has an accident that results in death, but the defendant was not negligent. Criminal homicide is the killing of a human being by another whose actions were found by the courts to have elements that were “purposeful, knowing, reckless, or negligent resulting in the killing of one human by another human” (Schmalleger & Dolatowski, 2010). Criminal homicide is murder, manslaughter, or negligent homicide that would involve two individuals engaging in physical confrontation over a situation such as a cheating spouse. One of the individuals takes out a gun and fatally shoots the other. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human...
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...even a whole community. A homicide is defined as “the killing of a human being by another human being.”(Schmalleger & Hall, 2014, p. 210) Under early common law, established by English courts, homicide was either felonious or non-felonious. Justifiable homicide and excusable homicide were considered non-felonious and felonious homicide was distinguished as murder. U.S. courts adopted English common law, and as time went on, modified felonious or criminal homicide into various categories. Today there are three types of homicide. They are justifiable, excusable, and criminal. Justifiable homicide and excusable homicide are considered noncriminal homicides. Criminal homicide can be further broken down into three categories, murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the homicide rate in the United States has declined since 2000 and has fallen to levels last seen back in the 1960’s. (bjs.gov) Males represent the highest percentage of victims, and the percentage of men who were the victims of a homicide is three times higher than that of a female victim. Men are also the majority of the offenders in a criminal homicide. (bjs.gov) Homicide rates can, of course, vary per state; Louisiana has the highest rate, with Iowa having the lowest. In the state of Michigan, we rank fifth, above larger more populated states such as California, Texas, and New York. (deathpenaltyinfo.org) The circumstances surrounding each homicide can differ...
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...memorandum is whether or not a person is capable, by law, to intentionally and premeditatedly commit homicide while Intoxicated; since this is usually considered involuntary or reckless, manslaughter. Under Virginia law, murder is defined as "the unlawful killing of another with malice aforethought." Stapleton v. Commonwealth, 123 Va. 825, 96 S. E. 801; Premeditation, or specific intent to kill, distinguishes murder in the first from murder in the second degree; proof of this element is essential to conviction of the former offense, and the burden of proving it clearly rests with the prosecution. Shiflett v. Commonwealth, 143 Va. 609, 130 S. E. 777; Jefferson v. Commonwealth, 214 Va. 432, 201 S. E. 2d 749. Joe a resident of Norfork, Virginia, is angry with his boss, Jerry, because he has just been fired. Joe goes to a bar and drowns his sorrows in 4 pints of been. Joe leaves the bar with a new degree of “liquid courage.” He goes into the hardware store and purchases a knife, he then staggers straight to Jerry’s house. He bursts into Jerry’s house, hunts down Jerry, and kills him with the knife. Joe is arrested and tried for first degree murder. The prosecution alleges that the murder was premeditated and announces that it will be seeking the death penalty for Joe. Joe claims that although the murder was planned and voluntary, he was so drunk that he could not have properly formed the intent to kill and should therefore not be subject to the murder charge. According to Virginia Code...
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...Corporate manslaughter * Homicide – this is when any act which results in unlawful killing of a person. The main criminal charges for homicide would be murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. However all homicides require the killing of a living person. * Murder – this is when a person unlawful kills another person under the queens peace, with malice aforethought, either expressed or implied by the law so as the victim wounded or hurt etc, if they die due to the wound within a year and a day the defendant would be charged with murder. * Actus Reus of murder would be if the defendant did the act or omitted to do a legally recognised duty. (An act or omission), the act was deliberate, the act was unlawful. (As opposed to killing in self defence), the defendants act was the significant cause of the death, the death was of a human being. * Mens Reus of murder would be having the clear intention to kill another human being. * Voluntary manslaughter – * Provocation - This is when a person is provoked by things done or said or sometimes both which may lead to a sudden and temporary loss of self control which leads the defendant into committing the crime. Provocation is such that a reasonable person would lose self control. * Dimished responsibility – This is when a person is suffering from abnormality of mind (whether arising from arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease...
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...Singapore, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vietnam, and Yemen. The methods of death penalties still in use are decapitation, electrocution, firing squad, gas chamber, hanging, lethal injection, shooting, and stoning. 1. A discussion of the differences between ‘manslaughter’ and ‘murder’ and a discussion of the recourse a convicted murder has after being sentenced. Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in an approach considered by law as less culpable than murder. Murder is the illegal slaughter, with malice aforethought, of another human. Manslaughter is divided into two categories voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary manslaughter is when a person kills a person with the intention of malice but, justifying circumstances present themselves resulting in them becoming less culpable. Involuntary manslaughter is the illegitimate killing of a person without the intention to kill. There are several differences; one is that murder is premeditated while manslaughter is protection. The other difference is that murder has a high penalty and the penalty for manslaughter. Then they would have steps in their recourse after being sentenced for their crime....
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...Part A asks in pursuing a charge of Involuntary Manslaughter against defendant in connection with the death of Vance Viejo, on what specific facts should the Prosecution rely to establish Defendants actus reus? The prosecution should rely on the conduct of the defendant, because the defendant actus reus is comprised of the conduct that is relevant to the crime, at the moment of the criminal act. Additionally, this conduct is composed of either; acts, voluntary acts, or omissions. NCPC §15.00 defines “Act” to mean a bodily movement, whether voluntary or involuntary. NCPC §15.00 defines “Voluntary Act” to mean a bodily movement preformed consciously as a result of effort or determination, and incudes the possession of property if the actor was...
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...unintentional or intentional someone ends dead and the offense or criminal charges may vary from state to state. Depending on the circumstances the driver could be charged with capital murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide. If instead of hitting and killing only one pedestrian the driver causes the death of two or more individuals in the same criminal act, the driver could be charged with capital murder. For instance, while driving home the person fails to obey a police officer traffic stop, the driver is under pursuit driving more than 50 mph down two city blocks open only to pedestrians, crashes into a crowd of people causing four deaths and 24 injured. The driver does not stop, slow down, or pull over, instead the driver speeds up and knowingly run over people with the car. The driver intentionally or knowingly uses the vehicle in a manner to cause the death of more than one person. The driver does not target or seek out these individuals to kill them, but the driver knew his actions...
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...As of us being the prosecutors, we believe that Johnny has committed a crime of Voluntary Manslaughter. There are many things that go in and out of Johnny’s life that happen on a daily basis that could have led to the the decision he had made which was to kill Bob with a switchblade. Johnny states that he gets abused by his parents and feels helpless by knowing that they don’t care about him. Not only that, but it also makes him feel depressed as well. Due to those reasons, those could have been a major influence into the killing of Bob, which is why we believe Johnny should be charged with Voluntary Manslaughter and not Self-defense. The night that Johnny killed Bob he was carrying a switchblade. The evidence states it because Johnny pulled out a switchblade to kill bob so he had to have one on him. Another thing is that you stated that you didn’t want to hurt anyone. So we like to know why did you pull out the switchblade and stab him. Even if you took the switchblade out you could have used it to scare them away and had them run that way not by killing bob and not leading to hurting anyone....
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...Murder: And all its forms Throughout the criminal justice system, news, and in many other situations the term “murder” is used quite frequently however usually incorrectly. Some people say animals or even trees get murdered, but under the law it is not murder unless a human takes the life of another human. Homicide is a lawful term for any killing of a human being by another human being. Homicide itself is not automatically a crime, some homicides are legal, such as the justifiable killing of a suspect by the police or a killing in self-defense. Unlawful homicides are classified as crimes like murder and manslaughter. This paper will explain the important but often overlooked distinctions between murder and manslaughter, and the different variations of both crimes. When we look at “murder” we must also look at the different degrees of murder which are a reflection of the intent or severity of a certain murder charge. The most common degrees of murder are 1st degree murder and 2nd degree murder and in some cases what we call “capital murder”. Regardless of the label on the degree of the murder committed, the general idea is to increase the punishment with the degree. The more inhumane the killing is, or the motive associated behind the killing, then the greater the punishment and degree is for the murder. We must first understand what murder is: Murder is the killing of one human by another that is intentional, unlawful, and done with “malice aforethought” or in other words...
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...I. Justification of Punishment a. Theories of Punishment and Purpose of Criminal Law Sentencing i. Deterrence 1. Utilitarian concept, forward-looking, premise: humans will act in their own interest 2. Individual Deterrence: general public is protected 3. General Deterrence: helps to protect public at large, justified on grounds of 1) prevention of crime by threat of arrest, conviction, punishment 2) prevention of crime by strengthening of moral norms 3) prevention of crime by stimulating law-abiding contact based on the impulse to conform. 4. Criticisms: 1) ineffective in cases where criminal is motivated by emotional concerns 2) one person might be used as a means to an end in order to deter others and benefit society as a whole ii. Retribution 5. Premise: humans act under free will and must be punished when they choose to violate society’s norms, backward-looking 6. Based on proportionality of punishment: the evil done to the victim is paid back to the perpetrator iii. Rehabilitation/Reform 7. Criticisms: 1)allocating resources to those who least deserve them 2) remaking humans with what society deems is the best 3) assuming that humans can simply be reconditioned iv. Incapacitation 8. Renders def unable to cause further harm to society 9. Criticisms: 1) too costly 2) ineffective in reducing recidivism 3) further...
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...Second degree murder is still murder with the intent to harm someone and planning it out over time and actually doing it. A man comes home and finds his wife to cheating he is upset and grabs his stuff and leaves. Over a few weeks, he plans to kill the guy she was cheating with. This would be second degree murder because he planned it out and he actually did it. Voluntary manslaughter is heat of the moment, you get mad at something and act on it right then, no time to plan it out. An example is the man comes home and finds his wife cheating and kills the other man she is cheating with. He didn’t plan it out but he did still kill the other man. This college student didn’t plan on harming anyone, he just wanted to go home. He didn’t say to himself,...
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...hour after death. b. Rigor mortis appears first in the smaller muscles, such as those of the face. c. After about 36 hours, rigor mortis usually disappears in the same sequence as it appeared. d. Maximum lividity occurs within 15–20 hours after death. 4. Premeditation would be a requirement in which case? a. first-degree murder c. excusable homicide b. second-degree murder d. justifiable homicide 5. Rigor mortis is at its maximum at about ____________ hours after death. a. 6 to 8 hours c. 12 to 24 hours b. 8 to 9 hours d. 36 to 48 hours 6. Deaths are classified by type as a. natural, accidental noncriminal, suicide, homicide noncriminal and criminal. b. natural, accidental, suicide, murder. c. Accidental, suicide, murder, voluntary. d. either by accident or by the hands of another. 7. A dead body that sinks in water usually remains immersed for a. 5 to 7 days in warm water and 3 to 4 weeks in cold water. b. 8 to 10 days in warm water and 2 to 3 weeks in cold water. c. 2 to 3 weeks in...
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