Murderby Aika Orozobekova

Non-criminal homicideA killing which doesn’t hold anyone criminally liable/responsible for it

• War• Capital punishment • Suicide• Duty (police shooting for protection of others)• Accident • Medicide (eg. Euthanasia, legal in some

countries)

Criminal Homicide

1)Murder 2)Manslaughter

Culpable homicide

• First degree

• Second degree

• Voluntary

• Involuntary

In IPC, anything that doesn’t meet the description of a murder or manslaughter, is just called a “culpable homicide”, general term Basically culpable homicide =

criminal homicide

Murder by degreeFirst degree • Intentional, willful, premeditated• Lying in a wait (hiding and waiting when victim

comes to kill him – this is premeditated)• especially with the use of a weapon which

needs preparation (eg. poison that needs to be prepared, bought on purpose, or a firearm that was purchased for this purpose, or anything that was brought with you on purpose to kill)

• Felony-Murder (explained later)

Murder by degree

Second degree• Not premeditated or pre-planned• Anything that is not First degree murder • Similar to Manslaughter, also without any prior

intention, heat of passion (decision to kill occurs right at the spot under rage, under circumstances which make any normal person emotionally unstable and unable to think clearly/rationally), but it’s somewhat heavier than manslaughter

Definition of murder

“when a person4, of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully1 kills2 any reasonable creature3 in being and

under the king's peace, with malice aforethought5, either express or

implied”(William Blackstone)

Elements of murder1. Unlawful (not falling under non-criminal homicide, and not self-defense or justified in any other way)2. Killing (when brain is permanently damaged beyond repair, not when the heart stops beating)3. Of a human (when does life begin? In some states foetus is not a human-being yet)4. By another human (suicide is not a murder)

5. With malice aforethought (mens rea element)

Mens Rea

Malice Aforethought

1) Intent to kill When a deadly weapon is used, the intention is automatically proven

Weapon examples: Firearm, knife, Harmful toxins andChemicals, Poison

2) Intent to inflict grievous bodily harm short of death

Example: Police officers beating up a homeless schizophrenic who died later in the hospital

Video

3) Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life ("abandoned and malignant heart")Meaning, you know there’s a high risk you might hurt someone but you still go on, and take that risk

Example: Driving under the influence of substances (drugs, alcohol etc) and killing a pedestrian

Another example, not exactly but similar

Serious negligence towards his mother of 70-years old who died due to bad care and treatment from her son

Anyone can understand that if you don’t take care of a 70-yr old woman, let her poop in her own pants due to being disabled, etc etc – there’s a high risk she will die. So this guy continued neglecting her to extreme point where she just died from toxins of her excretion entering her bloodstream since she wasn’t washed at all.

4)Intent to commit a dangerous felony (the "felony-murder" doctrine) When there’s no intent to kill but there’s an intent to commit a

serious felony (eg rape, robbery, arson, burglary, carjacking, kidnapping) which later unexpectedly resulted in someone’s death – the accused is charged with murder on the basis of felony-murder doctrine.

Of course, the link between death and felony must be not too remote (eg bank robbery – clerk dies due to allergy to ink on a cheque given by the robber. This is not a felony-murder. There’s no way the robber could’ve known about this allergy)

Example of felony-murder, a guy setting a wild forest fire (no intention to kill anyone, but there’s intention to commit a serious crime like arson). Resulted in a death of around 9 people during evacuation of the town. He was charged with felony-murder

Second example of felony-murderWatson, Duncan case

Watson, Duncan, and four other men robbed an armoured truck delivering money to the ATM machines. During the course of the robbery, armoured truck guard Norman Stephens was shot in the back and killed with shotguns used by the robbers• Watson was given a life imprisonment,

Duncan got 37 years in prison

Defense – Mitigating circumstances• Self-defense (not all cases can be excusable/justified,

because self-defense must be used only in appropriate situations when defendant kills only out of necessity when his life is in danger – you can’t kill someone who is just trying to steal your bag on the street and say it was self-defense)

• Mental disorders and insanity (insanity hardest to prove nowadays)

• Mental diseases and intoxication (voluntary)

• Duress (also depends on the threat that was put: you can’t kill under a threat of losing your money for example)

Images/videos taken from

• www.rt.com• www.brainlesstales.com• www.dreamindemon.com• www.democraticundeground.com• www.latimesblogs.latimes.com• www.youtube.com• www.articles.latimes.com