Chapter 9 – Comprehensive Homicide Notes

INTRODUCTORY FRAME

• Chapter focus: Homicide – the killing of one human being by another.
• Key clarification
  • "Homicide" ≠ automatically "crime"; the law only punishes criminal homicides.
  • Criminality hinges on mens rea (culpable mental state) and the absence of lawful justification/excuse.
• Road-map of the lecture
  • Core definitions → categorical breakdown (murder vs. manslaughter) → special doctrines (feticide, felony murder, degrees of murder, capital murder) → mens rea spectrum (intent, recklessness, negligence).

BASE DEFINITIONS & TERMINOLOGY

• Homicide: Killing of one human being by another.
  • Examples of non-criminal homicides
  • Accidental car fatality while fully compliant with traffic laws.
  • Lawful self-defense (e.g., victim stops knife-wielding assailant).
  • Very young child causing a death (lack of criminal capacity).
  • Executioner administering the death penalty by court order.
• Criminal homicide: Homicide + criminal intent + no lawful justification/excuse.
• Two umbrella categories
  • Murder: Unlawful killing with malice aforethought.
  • Manslaughter: Unlawful killing without malice aforethought.
• Feticide: Unlawful killing of a fetus.
  • Common-law rule: fetus had to be “born alive” to become a homicide victim.
  • Modern states use four tests for fetal personhood
  1. Viability Test (e.g., California): Can the fetus survive ex-utero?
  2. Quickening Test: Detectable fetal movement.
  3. Embryonic/Fetal Distinction: Onset of recognizable embryo.
  4. Conception Test: Life begins at fertilization (biblical roots).
  • Political/abortion-law currents cause rapid statutory change.

MALICE AFORETHOUGHT – “THE MURDER MENTALITY BOX”

• Term of art; does not literally require malice or pre-planning.
• Common-law four prongs
  1. Specific intent to kill.
  2. Intent to inflict grievous bodily harm (GBH).
  3. Extreme reckless disregard for human life a.k.a. Depraved-heart / wanton & willful disregard.
  4. Felony-murder intent: intent to commit an inherently dangerous felony that results in death.
  • Modern addition in some jurisdictions: Intent to resist a known lawful arrest.
• MPC translation
  • Purposely (≈ intent to kill).
  • Knowingly (≈ intent to cause GBH, knowing death could result).
  • Recklessly (≈ depraved heart).
  • Strict-liability overlay for felony murder.

ELEMENTAL CHECKLIST FOR ANY CRIMINAL HOMICIDE

1. Actus Reus: Act or omission causing death.
2. Mens Rea: Criminally culpable mindset (murder vs. manslaughter distinctions).
3. Causation
   • Victim must be alive at defendant’s act.
   • Must satisfy both factual ("but-for") and proximate cause.
   • Time-of-death rules
     • Common law: victim must die within $1$ year $+$ $1$ day.
     • Most states abolished; California uses $3$ years $+$ $1$ day.
4. No lawful justification/excuse.
   • Justifications: self-defense, defense of others, execution of sentence.
   • Excuses: infancy, insanity, etc.

RECKLESSNESS VS. NEGLIGENCE – THE SLIDING SCALE

• Recklessness (Murder level)
  • Defendant consciously disregards a substantial & unjustifiable risk to life.
  • Examples
  • Russian-roulette: load $1$ round in $6$-shot revolver and pull trigger at crowd.
  • Driving $100$ mph past elementary school dismissal.
  • Firing into a crowd "just to scare people".
• Criminal Negligence (Involuntary Manslaughter)
  • Defendant fails to perceive a substantial risk that ordinary reasonable person would perceive.
  • Jury instruction (CA): conduct “so different from that of an ordinary careful person that it amounts to a disregard for human life.”
• Ordinary Negligence (Misdemeanor Manslaughter / Negligent Homicide)
  • Simple failure of due care (e.g., rolling a stop sign at $5$ mph, minor speed over limit).
  • Civil tort threshold; some states downgrade to misdemeanor if death ensues.

FELONY-MURDER RULE (FMR)

• Doctrine: death during commission/attempt/flight of an inherently dangerous felony ⇒ murder liability for all participants.
• Traditional BAR-ROOM list
  • Burglary
  • Arson
  • Rape
  • Robbery
  • Mayhem (plus kidnapping, carjacking, etc., depending on state).
• Vicarious reach
  • Victim, bystander, police, co-felon deaths all chargeable.
  • Example: Two robbers flee; police helicopter crash kills officers ⇒ robbers convicted of murder.
• California reform $2019$: FMR abolished for accomplices; only the actual killer or major participant with reckless indifference can be liable.

DEGREES OF MURDER (CALIFORNIA MODEL)

• First-Degree Murder (25-to-life)
  • Killing by destructive device/WMD, armor-piercing ammo, poison.
  • Lying in wait (ambush) or torture.
  • Willful, deliberate, premeditated intent.
  • Felony murder during listed violent felonies.
• Second-Degree Murder (15-to-life)
  • Any murder with malice aforethought not elevated to first degree.
• Capital Murder (death or LWOP)
  • First-degree plus special circumstance (financial gain, prior murder, multiple victims, on-duty peace officer, etc.).
  • Charging decision highly political; varies by county DA philosophy.

VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER

• Murder mitigated by provocation or imperfect justification.
• Adequate Provocation / Heat of Passion
  • Victim’s conduct would cause a reasonable person to lose self-control.
  • Classic scenarios: spouse caught in adultery; child sexual assault discovered in flagrante.
• Imperfect (Mistaken) Self-Defense
  • Honest but objectively unreasonable belief lethal force was needed.
• Diminished Capacity: rare modern defense; retained in a handful of jurisdictions.

INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER

• Unlawful killing via criminal negligence (no malice).
• Examples
  • Driving $50$ mph through $25$ mph residential zone, oblivious to risk and killing pedestrian.
  • Parent leaves loaded gun accessible; child accidentally shoots sibling (parental liability).

MISDEMEANOR MANSLAUGHTER / NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE (Lowest Tier)

• Death caused by ordinary negligence.
  • Running stop sign at modest speed, minor distraction, etc.
• Punished as misdemeanor in CA; other states label “negligent homicide.”

CAUSATION DETAILS & DOCTRINAL NUANCES

• Medical Malpractice Rule: botched treatment ≠ superseding cause; shooter remains liable.
• Substantial-Factor Test (Concurrent Causes)
  • Multiple independent wounds each lethal → each assailant = proximate cause.
• Intervening Act must be unforeseeable & extraordinary to break chain.

JUSTIFICATION VS. EXCUSE – ETHICAL DIMENSION

• Moral legitimacy of killing hinges on societal valuation of circumstances.
  • Self-defense lauded as right of personal security.
  • Executioner’s homicide justified by democratic/legal process (raises capital-punishment ethics debates).
• Provocation & imperfect self-defense reveal law’s compassion for human frailty under extreme emotion/fear.

LINKS TO PREVIOUS CONCEPTS

• Builds on earlier lectures: causation doctrines, mens rea taxonomy, accomplice liability.
• Shows real-world application of abstract principles (e.g., proximate cause maps directly onto homicide charging).

QUICK RECALL – NUMERIC & STATISTICAL REFERENCES

• "Year + Day" rule: $366$-day death window (majority abolished).
• California modification: $3$ years + $1$ day.
• Revolver Russian-roulette: $1$ bullet / $6$ chambers (≈ $16.7\%$ chance per trigger pull).
• Sentencing ranges (CA):
  • First-degree murder ⇒ $25$-to-life.
  • Second-degree murder ⇒ $15$-to-life.

PRACTICAL & POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• Legislative trend: restrict felony murder (equity concerns, disproportionate impact on youth & minorities).
• Abortion jurisprudence reshapes feticide statutes (viability vs. conception tests in flux).
• Death-penalty enforcement depends more on county politics than on uniform legal principle—raises questions of arbitrariness.

STUDY TIPS

• Draw a three-column chart of intent → crime label → max penalty to cement mens rea spectrum.
• Practice hypotheticals: alter facts to toggle between recklessness & criminal negligence.
• Map your state’s stance on (a) fetal personhood test, (b) year-and-a-day rule, (c) felony-murder accomplice liability.