Chapter 9 Crimes against Persons I Murder and Manslaughter The Meaning of Person or Human Being Born Alive Rule the rule that to be a person and therefore a homicide victim a baby had to be born alive and capable of breathing and maintaining a heartbeat on its own Twenty Four States make it a crime to kill a fetus States revise existing homicide statutes to include fetuses as homicide victims States create new fetal homicide statutes aimed exclusively at fetuses States create statutes that punish attacks on pregnant women that cause death to the fetuses they re carrying Feticide killing a fetus Viability end of the second trimester when the fetus can live outside the womb usually at 28 weeks of pregnancy Quickening when the mother first feels the fetus moving in the womb usually between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy Murder Murder killing a person with malice aforethought Manslaughter killing a person without malice aforethought Justifiable Homicide killing in self defense capital punishment and law enforcement use of deadly force Excusable Homicide Killings done by someone not of sound memory and discretion insane and immature Criminal Homicide All homicides that are neither justified or excused Malice aforethought originally the mental state of intentional killing with some amount of spite hate or bad will planned in advance of the killing Depraved heart murder extremely reckless killings Intent to cause serious bodily injury murder no intent to kill is required when a victim dies following acts triggered by the intent to inflict serious bodily injury short of death Serious Bodily Injury bodily injury that involves a substantial risk of death protracted unconsciousness extreme physical pain protracted or obvious disfigurement or protracted loss or substantial impairment of a function of a bodily member organ or mental faculty Express malice aforethought killings that fit the original meaning of murder intentional killings planned in advance Implied malice aforethought intentional killings without premeditation or reasonable provocation unintentional killings during the commission of felonies depraved heart killings and intent to inflict grievous bodily harm killings Murder Actus Reus the act of killing by poisoning striking starving drowning and a thousand other forms by which human nature can be overcome Murder mens rea can include purposeful knowing or reckless killing The Kinds and Degrees of Murder Results from Opposing Criminal Death Penalty 1 The gradual peeling away of layers of criminal homicides that were thought not to deserve the death penalty 2 The emergence of more detailed grading schemes placing various types of criminal homicide among the spectrum of available criminal punishments 3 The development of various justifications and excuses making certain homicides noncriminal First Degree Murder Consists of 1 Premeditated deliberate intent to kill murders 2 Felony murders the only crime today in which the death penalty can be imposed Constitutional Bans o Mandatory Death sentences are banned States can t require the death penalty in all first degree murders o Unguided discretionary death penalty decisions are banned Judges and juries can t impose the death penalty without a list of specific criteria for and against the death penalty to guide their decision o Mitigating factors are required States can t limit the range of mitigating factors that might favor life imprisonment instead of death o Additional aggravating factors are allowed Jurors and juries are allowed to consider factors in favor of death not specifically included in statutory lists of aggravating factors Capital Cases death penalty cases in death penalty states and mandatory life sentence without parole cases in non death penalty states Bifurication procedure the requirement that the death penalty decision be made in two phases 1 A trial to determine guilt 2 A second separate proceeding after a finding of guilt to consider the aggravating factors for and mitigating factors against capital punishment List of Aggravating Circumstances 1 The murder was committed by a convict under sentence of imprisonment 2 The defendant was previously convicted of another murder or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person 3 At the time the murder was committed the defendant also committed 4 The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many another murder persons 5 The murder was committed while the defendant was engaged or was an accomplice in the commission or an attempt to commit or flight after committing or attempting to commit robbery rape or deviant sexual intercourse by force or threat of force arson burglary or kidnapping 6 The murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest of effecting an escape from lawful custody 7 The murder was committed by pecuniary gain 8 The murder was especially heinous atrocious or cruel manifesting exceptional depravity List of Mitigating Factors 1 The defendant has no significant history of criminal activity 2 The murder was committed while hte defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance 3 The victim was a participant in the defendant s homicidal conduct or consented to the homicidal act 4 The murder was committed under circumstances that the defendant believed to provide a moral justification or extenuation for his conduct 5 The defendant was an accomplice in a murder committed by another person and his participation in the homicidal act was relatively minor 6 The defendant acted under duress or under the domination of another person 7 At the time of the murder the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect or intoxication 8 The defendant was a young age at the time of the crime Categories of Evidence to prove murders really were premeditated and deliberate o Category 1 Facts about how and what defendant did prior to the actual killing which show that the defendant was engaged in activity directed toward and explicable as intended to result in the killing what may be characterized as planning activity o Category 2 Facts about the defendant s prior relationship and or conduct with the victim from which the jury could reasonably infer a motive to kill the victim which inference of motive together with facts of type 1 or 3 would in