Involuntary Manslaughter Essay

Despite recent reforms on the law of murder and voluntary manslaughter; including the special defence of diminished responsibility and loss of control, there are still inconsistencies present making the law unsatisfactory. This area of the law is in ‘dire need of reform’; as pointed out by the Law Commission in their 2006 report; Murder, Manslaughter and infanticide. The report stated how ‘The Law governing homicide in England and Wales is a rickety structure built upon shaky foundations.’

When a person takes steps toward the commission of a crime and has a specific intent to commit the crime, but for unforeseen reasons is unable to complete the crime the person has committed the crime of Attempt (Jirard, 2009). In the case of the State of Indiana versus Donald J. Haines, emergency personnel including two police officers [Dennis and Hayworth] along with emergency medical technicians [Garvey and Robinson] responded to Mr. Haines’s apartment for a report of a possible suicide that just occurred. When officers Dennis and Hayworth arrived at Haines’s apartment they discovered him lying face down in a pool of blood. Officer Dennis noticed that both of Haines’s wrists were cut and were bleeding. When Haines heard the paramedics he stood up, and began screaming at Dennis that he has AIDS and that he should be left to die. Dennis advised Haines that he was there to help him, and Haines told Dennis that he wanted to fuck him so that he could give him AIDS. Haines than told Dennis that he was going to utilize his wounds to spray blood on him, and began to jerk back and forth causing his infected blood to get into Dennis’ mouth and eyes. Haines told Dennis that he could not deal with having AIDS, but that he was going to make him deal with it.

8. Florida Stat. Ann. § 728.08 – Every person deliberately assisting another in the commission of self-murder shall be guilty of manslaughter . . ..;

Involuntary manslaughter is classified as killing another human individual unintentionally by their reckless behavior, or by a misdemeanor or lower level of felony. Voluntary manslaughter is killing another human individual by not having the intent to kill, but acted in the heat of passion during a certain situation in which the individual was having strong emotions. Also negligent homicide is when an individual causes death of another individual through criminal negligence meaning that there was no premeditation but was aware of the risks of his actions (Arizona State Legislature, 2007). An example of a case that falls under the tittle 13- criminal code of homicide sections 13-1101 to 13-1105 in Arizona is the Appellee v. Larry D. Thompson, 204 Ariz.

A person has acted negligently if he/she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under similar circumstances. The hypothetical reasonable person provides an objective by which the conduct of others is judged. The law considers a variety of factors in determining whether a person has acted as the hypothetical reasonable person would have acted in a similar situation. These factors include the knowledge, experience, and perception of the person, the activity the person is engaging in, the physical characteristics of the person, and the circumstances surrounding the person’s actions.

In England and Wales, murder is established (mens rea) where there is an act of the defendant, that causes the death

refers to the act to put the person to death by using the lethal dose drug but this act is

The casualty helps in deciding if the case is the first degree or second degree. Furthermore, in some jurisdiction, the degrees of manslaughter are known as voluntary or involuntary manslaughter and non-negligent or negligent manslaughter. A person who has intentions to harm victims will face the most serious forms of manslaughter. Any offender that carries out an assault in a spontaneous act of violence with little time of deliberation will be legally processed as a first-degree manslaughter case. When a person kills or harms someone because of speeding, carelessness, or recklessness these cases or most of the time are considered as second-degree manslaughter. These types of cases consideration are the negligent or illicit behavior of the offender. Nonetheless, in this article it shows the commitment to regard provocation manslaughter as an offense as regulating hypothetical issues and that it is conceivable to do this as a functional issue (Huigens, 2011). The best hypothetical depiction of provocation manslaughter is as an offense and not as a partial justification defense or as an incomplete reason commenced a fractional loss of dependable

c) Constructive manslaughter, when the accused did not want to kill but did so accidentally during the commission of the crime.

Too feeble to stand up himself, a grown man sits in the arms of hospice care day in and day out, just waiting to be picked up out of bed, given a little relief. All that crosses his mind is the thought of death. This man suffers through the pain of his condition everyday, until he sluggishly deteriorates. His body hangs on longer than his mind, until he dies exactly the opposite of how he wanted to, not of a sound mind. Death with Dignity states that 70% of people in the U.S. have joined the fight to legalize a practice in which people can chose to die at the end of their life in specific conditions. Voluntary assisted suicide should be legalized in Wisconsin because there are strict laws that will make sure that this process is done correctly,

- Manslaughter is basically unlawfully killing when the accused is not charged with murder because they have a defences for their actions.

Capital murder is when someone is charged with the murder of another person and is punished with the maximum punishment of death. Capital murder comes in two forms, 1st degree and 2nd degree.

for killing another person, or just doing the same act to the attacker that the attacker did to the victim. Another punishment of this example could

(Samaha, 2015, p. 329). In the 1600’s, Sir Edward coke decided that under common law murder occurred when a person, “of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being and under the king’s peace, with malice aforethought, either express or implied” (Samaha, 2015, p. 330). Before this time, in the 1550’s, the action of murder occurred when an individual deliberately killed someone else with poison or lied in wait before the attack (Samaha, 2015, p. 330). Coke added to the earlier version of the common law of murder, when stating “malice aforethought.” This term, which is considered the original mental element, described the mental state of the individual while they planned for the action of killing (Samaha, 2015, p. 330). These ideas from the common law of the time, reinforced that the act must be intentional and also added that a strong mental element must be present. Following these established rules under common law, judges began to expand the action of murder to include more than previously stated. One of the earliest additions, made killings that occurred, “during the heat of passion,” (Samaha, 2015, p. 330) murder. With this new rule, not all murders had to be planned. As time went on, the judges over many years made four new additional rules regarding murder. first, judges added to the common law by making any killing that occurred during commission of a felony a murder (Samaha, 2015, p. 330). Second, the judges added

termination of one’s own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect