The one certainty of life is that death is inevitable. It is impossible for one not to die. One of the most tragic ways a person can die is by the hands of another person. The killing of another person is almost always punishable by law. However, surprisingly there are acts of killing that are deemed within the law. The taking of another person’s life is categorized in many different ways. Homicide is the overarching term that incases all the ways in which a person can be killed by another, legal or not.
By definition, homicide is when one person kills another person. In some circumstances, there may be a motive behind the action, whereas in other situations it is accidental. Homicide can be more specifically defined as murder, manslaughter,
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legal killing, and capital punishment. Each of these types of homicide is distinctly different within the context of the law even though they involve taking another person’s life. Murder is the deliberate killing of another person. This is the most prevalent type of homicide. “In 2013 there were over 14,000-recorded murders (United States Crime Rate).” “While this sounds like a large number the average rate has dropped dramatically. Since 1970 the average rate has dropped from a high of 10.2 to a low of 4.5. The south has continually boasted the highest rate per region, since 2001 they have not dipped below 5.3 deaths and as high as 7 in 2007. In this same time period the northeast has had the lowest rate, hitting a low of 3.5 and a high of 4.5 in 2006 (Murder Rates Nationally and by State).” Murder is always a tragic event. There is a wide range of reasons or “motives” as to why people murder. Reasons for murder include, “revenge or jealousy, gang affiliation, mental illness, religious views, hate/racist crimes, or simply the joy of killing another person (Sohail).” In some cases, people feel provoked by the activities or actions of others, which urges them to commit the crime. In other murder scenarios, the motive is much more obscure. For example, an unusual motive for murder involved the case of Fergus Glen who murdered his brother simply for not thanking him for making him dinner. Murder can be broken down into different degrees. There is first, second, and felony murder. First-degree murder is when s person has intent to kill someone and does. Second-degree murder is when someone has the intent to only do harm to someone, but ends up killing them. Finally, felony murder is when a crime is committed and a death results, but it wasn’t planned outcome. Some of the most famous people to ever be murdered include John Lennon, rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, clothing designer Gianni Versace, and the man who assassinated the President, Lee Harvey Oswald. The reason famous people are targeted for murder is because the people who murder have a deep obsession with them. Others will murder to fill a complex psychological need. They look for a specific type of victim and along with the murder they will leave traces of their personality behind as they feel the need to leave the crime scene in a particular fashion. There are experts who study the crime scene to build a strong profile of the suspect. Profiling is a common tool used to solve a crime; another tool used is DNA identification. Additionally, scientific advances involving the use of DNA has become a significant forensic methodology. DNA identification can link a subject to the crime scene, the weapon used, and ultimately the crime itself. This has been a helpful tool for police officers as they can use DNA of any sort including blood, hair, fingerprints, and skin. These samples are then sent to a lab for quick processing, saving the police agencies time, money, and resources thus speeding along the rate at which crimes are solved. Assassination, another type of murder, is when a person of fame is killed for a political reason. Some of the most famous people who have been assassinated include, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Franz Ferdinand. The commonality among these people is that they were all leaders. Their assassins did not agree with the ideas and leadership. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. were both civil rights activists, fighting to gain rights for the people they represented. John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and Franz Ferdinand were all political leaders. Franz Ferdinand’s death was striking, as it is one of the reasons why World War I started. Manslaughter, which is homicide without the intent to kill, can be considered voluntary or involuntary.
“Voluntary manslaughter is when a person is provoked and accidently kills another person. Involuntary manslaughter is when a person kills someone else due to his or her reckless behavior (Katz).” An example of voluntary manslaughter is when someone who is being victimized acts in self defense to try and cause serious harm to their attacker, but ends up killing them as a result. A common example of involuntary manslaughter is vehicular manslaughter, which is when a driver of a vehicle is under the influence of a substance and kills someone due to his or her lack of control. In cases of murder and manslaughter legal consequences are imposed in order to hold people accountable for their …show more content…
actions. Legal killing is a broad term used to define the situations where taking a persons life does not have legal implications.
Legal killing can include the enforcement of the law by a police officer, acting in self-defense, or medical euthanasia. Medical euthanasia is a provocative topic that many people don’t feel should be legal. Euthanasia has caused much controversy among doctors and hospitals as some feel it is against a doctor’s sworn Hippocratic Oath to, “do no harm”. In fact, policies and laws surrounding euthanasia vary from hospital-to-hospital and from state-to-state. Finally, capital punishment is when some one is convicted of a crime and sentenced to death. Historically methods of death included the electric chair, hanging, and shooting squads. Although not legal in all states, the current practice of capital punishment is typically by lethal injection. The drug(s) used in lethal injection renders the person unconscious, causes paralysis of the muscle and eventually stop the heart. Interestingly this all takes place under the supervision of a
doctor. While the murder rate has been on a steady decline, it is still a topic of discussion amongst news channels and politicians. It is unclear what has exactly caused this decline, but some suggest stricter gun control, more proactive policing, social programs, and incarceration rate have lead to this lower rate. Homicide is a sensitive and tragic topic. It’s incomprehensible that there are people in the world who want to take another persons life. While it’s not always illegal to kill someone under certain circumstances, causing the death of another person generally illegal and can be punishable by prison time or even the death sentence, depending on the nature of the case. Unfortunately, mental illness, availability of weapons, and a desire for instant fame will continue to contribute to homicide in our society.
Murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. A non-criminal homicide ruling, usually commited in self-defense or in defense of another.
Under MPC/State Statutes, Murder must have the element of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing (Criminal Law Outline – Homicide, 2009). The MPC provides that a person is guilty of criminal homicide if they take the life of another person being purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently. MPC divides criminal homicide into three rather than two offenses: murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide. Under MPC there must be extreme mental or emotional disturbance.
In 2012, there were an estimated 14,827 murders and non-negligent manslaughter crimes reported by all agencies in the United States according to the Uniform Crime Report at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter are defined “as the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.” A 1.1 percent increase occurred from 2011 to 2012. But it should be noted, this is a 9.9 percent drop from the figure for 2008 and a 10.3 percent decrease from the number of murders recorded in 2003. Of the murders that occurred in 2012, it is estimated that 43.6 percent were reported in the south, 21.0 percent were from the Midwest, 21.0 percent were accounted from the west, and 14.2 percent were from the northeast
Bowers, W, Pierce, G., and McDevitt, J.(1984), Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1964-1982, 333
Euthanasia is a word derived from Greek that has the etymological meaning of an easy death through the alleviation of pain (Moreno, 1995). Through the course of history, the signification of the term has changed and evolved in many different definitions. A useful definition of euthanasia on which we will base this essay, is named ‘mercy killing’, which signifies deliberately putting an end to someone’s life to avoid further suffering, as stated by Michael Manning in 1998. The euthanasia debate possesses a strong significance in our modern society. A discussion conducted by both scholars and politicians is going on whether physicians have the right to hasten the death of an individual by the administration of poison. In this essay
Murder, as the online dictionary Merriam-Webster states, is the crime of unlawfully killing a person. This is a general term for murder and is further broken down into subcategories. This is done in order to adequately distinguish the multitude of different types of murder. With names such as first degree, second degree, and voluntary manslaughter, many murders can be classified under a specific category.
The Death Penalty practice has always been a topic of major debate and ethical concern among citizens in society. The death penalty can be defined as the authorization to legally kill a person as punishment for committing a crime, this practice is also known as Capital Punishment. The purpose of creating a harsher punishment for criminals was to deter other people from committing atrocious crimes and it was also intended to serve as a way of incapacitation and retribution. In fact, deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution are some of the basic concepts in the justice system, which explain the intentions of creating punishments as a consequence for illegal conduct. In the United States, the Congress approved the federal death penalty on June 25, 1790 and according to the Death Penalty Focus (DPF, 2011) organization website “there have been 343 executions, two of which were women”.
Starvation, suffocation with a plastic bag, carbon monoxide and lethal doses of drugs are some way to die practiced by euthanasia. In definition, euthanasia is the option that some people choose to end his/her life when living becomes too unbearable for them. Tough Euthanasia is mostly asked by the person who wants to die; there are some cases where the person does not is even conscious of his/her death, such cases are typically seen with persons in the vegetative state. Some people do not agree with the practice of involuntary Euthanasia; they argue against this process labeling it as a crime. While opponents may think this is an action against the law because it takes away the life of someone without his/her consent, other people opt to consider
The first type of homicide is "first degree murder." First-degree murder is premeditated and planned. Premeditated is the mens-rea of the crime, or the vital intent to commit the crime. "Premeditated" means purposely or knowingly thus “lying in wait for the victim”. The intent of first-degree murder is that murders must have the specific intent to end another’s life. Stated on the criminal find law:
Euthanasia is the act of ending a person’s life through lethal injection or through the removement of treatment. Euthanasia comes from the Greek word meaning “good death.” When a death ends peacefully, it is recognized as a good death. In modern society, euthanasia has come to mean a death free of any pain and anxiety brought on through the use of medication; this can also be called mercy killing, deliberately ending someone’s life in order to end an individual’s suffering. Anything that would ease human suffering is good. Euthanasia eases human suffering. Therefore, euthanasia is good. Because active euthanasia is considered as suicide or murder, it is a very controversial issue and therefore, illegal in most places. Although there are always
What is homicide and what are homicidal offenses? Homicide has been defined as the taking of the life of one human being by another. Homicidal offenses vary by degrees of the offense, penalties, and manor in which the offense occurred. These offenses include: First-Degree Murder, Second-Degree Murder, Felony, Justifiable and Excusable Homicide. These are some of the main topics and can be broken down into subcategories within and amongst themselves. Some of the earliest recorded cases of murder date back to the 12th century with the King’s Bench or Queen’s Court in England; we will cover some of the earliest establishments of these laws and/or cases in history.
Culpable Homicide is the illegal killing of a person with or without an intention to kill. Criminal Homicide is when someone take the life of another, regardless of intent or other details surrounding the incident (Moreland, 125). Homicide is not always charged as a crime. There Justifiable Homicide, this when killings are authorized by the law, like execution. There is also Excusable Homicide, the killing in a case of self defense. Homicide ranges from involuntary manslaughter to first degree murder. Homicide and Murder differ from each other based off the force of the offender.
If a mass killer’s murders are committed in more than just a single location, then they are part of a continuous action (Murder 1). Their victims are usually chosen at random, not just killed at first sight. Their targets may also come in specific groups. More than occasionally, a mass murderer will take his own life after his urge to kill is over. This is possibly because authorities recognize the killer is unstable and are likely to shoot the killer in order to protect themselves. A typical mass murderer uses a semi-automatic weapon and plots his murders to be made in a school, university, or restaurant (murder 1).
Capital punishment is the death penalty, or execution which is the sentence of death upon a person by judicial process as a punishment for a crime like murdering another human and being found guilty by a group of jurors who have listen to a court hearing were the District Attorney and the defendant argue their sides of the case. Historical penalties include boiling to death, flaying, disembowelment, crucifixion, crushing (including crushing by elephant), stoning, execution by burning, dismemberment.(2008) The U.S., begin using the electric chair and the gas chamber as more humane execution then hanging, then moved to lethal injection, which in has been criticized for being too painful. Some countries still choose to use hanging, and beheading by sword or even stoning.
Capital punishment is the punishment of death for a crime given by the state. It is used for a variety of crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and treason. Many countries also have the death penalty for sexual crimes such as rape, incest and adultery. The lethal injection, the electric chair, hanging and stoning are all methods of execution used throughout the world. Capital punishment has been around since ancient times; it was used in ancient Rome, and one of the most famous people to be crucified was Jesus Christ. Capital punishment is now illegal in many countries, like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but it is also legal in many other countries such as China and the USA. There is a large debate on whether or not capital punishment should be illegal all over the world as everyone has a different opinion on it. In this essay, I will state arguments for and against the death penalty, as well as my own opinion: capital punishment should be illegal everywhere.