1. Homicide Offenses
- Business Law

2. Elements: the prosecution must show
(1) Actus reus - affirmative act or omission,
(2) Corpus delicti - body or evidence that a death has occurred,
(3) Mens rea - [coming up], and
(4) Proximate causation

3. DEGREES OF MURDER
the mens rea requirement

4. 1st DEGREE
the premeditated taking of a human life

5. 2nd DEGREE taking a human life with "malice aforethought,"
consists of one of the following

6. 2nd DEGREE (cont’d.) (1) intent to kill (a) desire to kill or
(b) knowledge that death is substantially certain to occur

7. 2nd DEGREE (cont’d.) (2) intent to do serious bodily injury
(3) reckless indifference to the value of human life
also known as a "depraved heart"

8. 2nd DEGREE (cont’d.)
(4) during the commission of another felony - "felony murder rule"
(a) felonies at common law, or
(b) malum in se rather than malum prohibitum felonies

9. VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER
a defendant is entitled to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter if
(1) he acts in response to a provocation that would be sufficient to cause a reasonable man to lose his self-control; and
(2) he acts in a "heat of passion"; and

10. VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER (cont’d.)
(3) a reasonable man would not have had time to "cool off" between the provocation and the act; and
(4) he had not "cooled off" before he committed the act.

11. INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER
a person is guilty of involuntary manslaughter if his GROSSLY NEGLIGENT conduct results in the death of another person.

12. MISDEMEANOR MANSLAUGHTER
a death occurs accidentally during the commission of a misdemeanor offense, such as the violation of a traffic law.

13. The End