Homicide

Homicide is broadly defined as the killing of one human being by another. Homicide is a class of crimes that all involve the killing of one person by another, but are distinguished by the circumstances involved in the particular act of killing. If you are accused of any form of homicide in California, it is in your best interest to immediately contact a defense attorney with the experience and knowledge to provide the most vigorous defense possible.

Murder with Special Circumstances is a situation that exists where the death penalty is an option as a punishment for a defendant. There are a number of reasons why the death penalty could attach. Some of the reasons would be multiple murder victims, terrorism, murder to prevent one’s arrest, or the murder of a witness, judge, prosecutor, or police officer.

Murder is a form of homicide committed with malice aforethought. Malice aforethought has various definitions, all of which relate to the state of mind of the person who commits murder. Those definitions are:

1. intention to cause grevious injury and death resulted;
2. conduct with a "depraved heart" showing lack of care for human life;
3. or intent to commit any felony whatsoever;

Murder in the first degree is committed when there is an unlawful killing of a person with malice aforethought and the homicide was premeditated. Premeditation is key to a prosecutor’s case of murder in first degree. Premeditation can exist where there have been months of planning or when a split second decision to kill has been made. All that is required is that a person decides to kill and then they kill. It doesn’t matter how much time does or does not elapse between the decision to kill and the act that kills. A qualified attorney will be required to successfully defend a murder charge.

Murder in the second degree also requires malice aforethought but it does not require premeditation. Therefore, murder in the second degree usually exists where it can be shown that a person did not have the necessary mental state for premeditation but did act intentionally nevertheless. In California there are three theories of second degree murder, and it takes an experienced criminal defense lawyer to know the differences. The first theory is unpremeditated murder with express malice. The second theory of murder in the second degree is the unlawful killing of a human being when the killing resulted from an intentional act, the natural consequences of the act are dangerous to human life, and the act was deliberately performed with knowledge of the danger to, and with conscious disregard for, human life. The third theory of second degree felony murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, whether intentional, unintentional or accidental during the commission of a crime if the perpetrator had the specific intent to commit that crime.

Homicide can also consist of manslaughter, and manslaughter can be broken down into voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and vehicular manslaughter. A homicide is considered manslaughter when there is a killing of one human being by another but malice is not present.

Voluntary manslaughter is a murder that is generally committed “in the heat of passion” or as “imperfect self-defense.” The judicial definition of voluntary manslaughter is an unlawful killing that is committed without malice but with a conscious disregard for life.

Involuntary manslaughter exists when a person commits an unlawful killing but does not intend to kill and does not act with the conscious disregard for human life. An example of involuntary manslaughter would be if an individual punched somebody in the face just once and that person died. If the punch to the face was not intended to kill, there is no intent to kill, and because the punch was not meant to kill, there was no conscious disregard for human life.

The last category of manslaughter is vehicular manslaughter. Vehicular manslaughter exists when a person has acted with gross negligence and that negligence results in the death of another. An example of vehicular manslaughter is if a person got behind the wheel of a car and drove that car as fast as they could without regard to any traffic signs and slammed into another car killing the driver of the other car.

If you have been arrested on homicide charges, you need an attorney who has experience in defending these charges. Do not hesitate to call today for a free case evaluation from The Kavinoky Law Firm.