HOMICIDE

homicide (hom-<<schwa>>-sId), n.1. The killing of one person by another. [Cases: Homicide  520.] 2. A person who kills another. — homicidal,adj.

“The legal term for killing a man, whether lawfully or unlawfully, is ‘homicide.’ There is no crime of ‘homicide.’ Unlawful homicide at common law comprises the two crimes of murder and manslaughter. Other forms of unlawful homicide have been created by statute: certain new forms of manslaughter (homicide with diminished responsibility, and suicide pacts), infanticide, and causing death by dangerous driving.” Glanville Williams, Textbook of Criminal Law 204 (1978). criminal homicide. 1. Homicide prohibited and punishable by law, such as murder or manslaughter. [Cases: Homicide  525, 656.] 2. The act of purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causing the death of another human being. Model Penal Code § 210.1.

“Criminal homicide is everywhere divided into categories that reflect the historical distinction in English law between murder and manslaughter. American statutory formations have varied the terminology and the precise classifications; many statutes create more than two forms of criminal homicide, for purposes of definition and/or punishment. These variations notwithstanding, it is usually possible to discern a category that corresponds to the common-law crime of murder, the paradigm of which is a deliberate killing without legal justification or excuse, and a category that corresponds to the common-law crime of manslaughter and comprises killings that either are committed in circumstances which substantially mitigate their intentional aspect or are not intentional. In common speech as well as in the law, murder refers to the most serious criminal homicides, and manslaughter to those that may be serious crimes for which a substantial penalty is imposed but lack the special gravity of murder.” Lloyd L. Weinreb, “Homicide: Legal Aspects,” in 2 Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice 855, 857 (Sanford H. Kadish ed., 1983).

criminally negligent homicide.See negligent homicide.

culpable homicide.Scots law. A wrongful act that results in a person’s death but does not

amount to murder. Cf. MANSLAUGHTER.

excusable homicide. 1. Homicide resulting from a person’s lawful act, committed without intention to harm another. [Cases: Homicide  750.] 2. See justifiable homicide (1).

felonious homicide.Homicide committed unlawfully, without legal justification or excuse. • This is the category into which murder and manslaughter fall.

homicide by abuse.Homicide in which the perpetrator, under circumstances showing an extreme indifference to human life, causes the death of the perpetrator’s dependent — usu. a child or mentally retarded person.

homicide by misadventure.See ACCIDENTAL KILLING.

homicide per infortunium (p<<schwa>>r in-for-t[y]oo-nee-<<schwa>>m). [Latin “homicide by misfortune”] The unintentional killing of another while engaged in a lawful act;  ACCIDENTAL KILLING. See PER INFORTUNIUM. [Cases: Homicide  762.]

innocent homicide.Homicide that does not involve criminal guilt.

justifiable homicide. 1. The killing of another in self-defense when faced with the danger of death or serious bodily injury. — Also termed excusable homicide. See SELF-DEFENSE(1).2. A

killing mandated or permitted by the law, such as execution for a capital crime or killing to prevent a crime or a criminal’s escape. [Cases: Homicide  752–756.]

“It should be noted that a justifiable homicide is not criminal, since it is a killing which the law has either commanded or permitted: the actus in such a case is not legally punishable, and therefore we may perhaps say that it is an actus of killing which is not reus. As we shall see in most cases of justifiable homicide the killing is intentional, and therefore the mental element of criminal responsibility is clearly present: but there is no crime committed since there is no actus reus.” J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny’s Outlines of Criminal Law 109 (16th ed. 1952).

“English lawyers once distinguished between ‘excusable’ homicide (e.g. accidental non-negligent killing) and ‘justifiable’ homicide (e.g. killing in self-defence or in the arrest of a felon) and different legal consequences once attached to these two forms of homicide. To the modern lawyer this distinction has no longer any legal importance: he would simply consider both kinds of homicide to be cases where some element, negative or positive, required in the full definition of criminal homicide (murder or manslaughter) was lacking. But the distinction between these two different ways in which actions may fail to constitute a criminal offence is still of great moral importance. Killing in self-defence is an exception to a general rule making killing punishable; it is admitted because the policy or aims which in general justify the punishment of killing (e.g. protection of human life) do not include cases such as this. In the case of ‘justification’ what is done is regarded as something which the law does not condemn, or even welcomes.” H.L.A. Hart, “Prolegomenon to the Principles of Punishment,” in Punishment and Responsibility 1, 13 (1968).

negligent homicide.Homicide resulting from the careless performance of a legal or illegal act in which the danger of death is apparent; the killing of a human being by criminal negligence. — Also termed criminally negligent homicide. See criminal negligence under NEGLIGENCE. [Cases: Homicide  708.]

“There is no common-law offense known as ‘negligent homicide.’ As a matter of the common law of crimes any killing below the grade of manslaughter is innocent homicide. Some of the new penal codes have a classification scheme which (omitting degrees or other variations) divides criminal homicide into murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide — or simply negligent homicide. For the most part, however, this has been achieved by removing from manslaughter the offense of homicide by criminal negligence and using this to constitute the newly named offense. Thus, though there are a few exceptions, most states will have no homicide offense which would be below common-law manslaughter.” Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 116–17 (3d ed. 1982).

nonfelonious homicide.A killing that is legally either excusable or justifiable. See excusable

homicide; justifiable homicide.

reckless homicide.The unlawful killing of another person with conscious indifference toward

that person’s life. Cf. MANSLAUGHTER. [Cases: Homicide  709.] vehicular homicide.The killing of another person by one’s unlawful or negligent operation of

a motor vehicle. — Also termed automobile homicide. [Cases: Automobiles  342.1. C.J.S. Motor Vehicles §§ 1456–1458, 1460–1466, 1468–1469, 1471–1476, 1478–1485.]

victim-precipitated homicide. 1. See suicide-by-cop under SUICIDE. 2. A killing provoked by the victim who consciously intended to die at the hands of another person. • This term applies loosely to any assisted suicide. Unlike most types of homicide, the victim bears some of the responsibility for causing his or her own death.

willful homicide.The act of intentionally causing a person’s death, with or without legal justification.

[Blacks Law 8th]