Chapter 4Homicide

1.Justifiable homicide is the taking of human life when an excuse exists. Felonious homicide is homicide done with the intent to commit a felony.

2.Before self-defense can be used as a justification for homicide, the danger must appear so imminent that the only possible way to escape death or bodily injury is to kill the assailant.

3.To be convicted of homicide, it must be shown that the defendant's act was the proximate cause of death.

4.The punishment for suicide at common law was the forfeiture of the deceased's goods to the state and burial under the highway leading into town so that henceforth every person, wagon, and animal going in and out of town would run over the body.

5.In some states, anyone who counsels another to commit suicide and who is present when the act is committed would be considered a principal in the second degree to the crime of murder.

6.No degrees of murder existed at common law.

7.Under early statutes, the punishment for murder in the first degree was death, and the punishment for murder in the second degree was life imprisonment.

8.Generally, first-degree murder is murder committed: (a) with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or (b) with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or (c) while in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life.

9.In some states, murder that is not found to be in the first degree is murder in the second degree. Other states differentiate the two degrees depending on whether the malice was express or implied.

10.Malice is essential in all degrees of murder, whereas it is not present in manslaughter.

11.Voluntary manslaughter occurs when an intention to kill exists but through the violence of sudden passion, occasioned by some great provocation.

12.Involuntary manslaughter occurs when death of another takes place while in the commission of an unlawful or reckless act and no intention to kill exists.

Understanding Legal Concepts

1.F, justifiable6.F, no

2.T7.T

3.T8.T

4.T9.F, voluntary manslaughter

5.F, homicide10.F, involuntary manslaughter

Checking Terminology

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Using Legal Language

A gruesome killing was discovered when the maid found the corpus delicti on the floor, riddled with bullet holes. The victim was not an infant or a father or a mother, therefore the crime could not have been infanticide, patricide, or matricide. It turned out that the butler shot his wife, making the crime uxoricide. The shooting was held to be the proximate cause, or dominant cause that produced the death. This case was not one in which the killer had an excuse for the use of force in resisting attack; therefore, he could not claim self defense. When the killer was executed by the state, it was a type of homicide known as justifiable homicide or excusable homicide rather than felonious homicide of which the killer was guilty. The felon had been convicted of first-degree murder, which is murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought. Although it found malice, the jury decided against second-degree murder, because premeditation had occurred. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of one human being by another without malice aforethought. Because of the malice in the case, the killing was neither voluntary manslaughter nor involuntary manslaughter. It was, however, a(n) capital crime because it is punishable by death in that state.

Puzzling Over What You Learned

1 / 2
F / R / A / T / R / I / C / I / D / E / M
3 / A
H / O / M / I / C / I / D / E
4 / L
T / V
5 / 6 / 7
J U / S / T I / F / I / A / B / L / E / H / O / M / I / C / I / D / E
C / A
E / C / X
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L / S / U / I / C / I / D / E / B / E / C
F / D / L / U
- / 9 / S
G / E / N / O / C / I / D / E / E
D / A
10 / 11
F EL / O / NY / MUR / D / ER / M / B
F / U
L
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Y E / A / R / - / A / N / D / - / A / - / D / AY / R / U / L / E
13 / N / D
M
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NSL / AUG / H / T / E R / H
MA / E
T / E / R / O
R / M
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I / C O / R / P / U / S / - / D / E / L / I / C / T / I
C / C
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R I / G H / T / - / T / O / - / D / I / E / L / A / W / S / I
D / D
17 / OXI / M / A / TE / CAUS / E
E / P R

Caveat: Allow squares for spaces between words and punctuation (apostrophes, hyphens, etc.) whenfilling in crossword.

Across

1. Killing one's brother.

  1. The killing of a human being by a human being.
  1. The taking of a human life when an excuse exists.
  1. Self-destruction.
  1. Killing a racial or political group.
  1. Murder committed while in the commission of a felony.
  1. Death must occur within year and day for a person to be guilty of homicide.
  1. Unlawful killing of human being by another without malice.
  1. The body on which a crime has been committed.
  1. Laws that allow dying people to refuse extraordinary treatment.
  1. The dominant cause that produces an injury or death.

Down

  1. Killing a fetus in the womb—abortion.
  1. Evil intent.

4. Having the appearance of being able to live.

  1. An excuse for the use of force in resisting attack.
  1. The taking of a human life when an excuse exists.
  1. Unlawful killing of a human being by another with malice aforethought.

13. Killing one's mother.