Two Types of Homicide and Their Differences

The word "capital" refers to any crime where death is a possible punishment. In the United States, murder is the only crime for which you can be executed at the state level. The federal government still retains treason, terrorism, and drug trafficking is capital crimes. The term homicide is a fairly generic term that refers to the killing of one human by another. Although the term is often associated with murders, there are actually two different types of homicide. First, justifiable homicides are those in which the perpetrator is excused or justified in the killing and is not punished. Second, criminal homicides are those that are usually not excused or against the law and are considered the worst type of crime a human can perpetrate. We'll talk about these two different types of homicides in more detail next.

But first, if you didn't know, the word murder is also the word to describe a large group of crows. A murder of crows. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests this is an allusion to the crow's traditional association with violent death or it's harsh and raucous cry. If you've ever heard dozens of agitated crows in full cry, it really does sound like they're yelling bloody murder. A homicide is considered justifiable if it occurs out of necessity for the protection or defense of life or property or if it is committed by police, soldiers, or corrections officials during the course of their employment and in the line of duty. This includes prison guards, the warden, and other state employees who participate in an execution. They are engaging in justifiable homicide. States vary on what types of tests are considered justifiable. In some states, simply the presence of an intruder in a home is sufficient to warrant justifiable killing of the intruder. In other states, you're able to protect your own property, your neighbor's, and your car, whereas some states you are only justified in killing an intruder if he or she had a weapon and you were threatened.

Florida and Texas have some of the most lenient justifiable homicide laws. In Texas, the laws are referred to as castle laws, giving an individual the right to protect their home or their castle. This refers to the Old English dictum that a man's home is his castle. In Florida, the law is called the stand your ground law. Other states such as Vermont, South Dakota, and Nebraska have weaker or no specific castle law. In these states, they refer to the need to retreat first before the use of reasonable and necessary force. In several states, they do distinguish between what is considered excusable and justifiable homicide. Excusable homicide refers typically to true accidents that are not caused by negligence and in which the perpetrator is at least partially at fault. So an example of an excusable homicide would be a car accident, but not one where the driver was engaging in drinking or texting while driving. In those instances, driver was engaging in illegal or reckless behavior, which is not excusable. Criminal homicide. While persons who engage in justifiable or excusable homicide are not held criminally liable, there are several types of homicide that are criminal offenses and could land someone on death row.

The most serious form of criminal homicide is first degree murder. This means that the murders are intentional and occur with malice of forethought, meaning premeditation or that the murder was thought about ahead of time. All first degree murderers must have these two elements-- premeditation and deliberation. This means that in order for a homicide to be a first degree murder, the perpetrator must have thought about and planned the killing and must have deliberately and intentionally done the killing. This is distinguished from second degree murder in that second degree is often considered a lesser murder because there was no planning or no intent. It often occurs when people exhibit an extreme indifference to life or when someone was engaging in a serious or potentially harmful behavior, even though they did not intend to kill. For example, if Joseph brought a gun to a park and was engaging in target practice even though there were young children running around him, he's engaging in potentially dangerous behavior. If a child is shot and dies, Joseph could be charged with second degree murder because although he did not intend to kill the child, he should've known that his dangerous behavior could have led to such an outcome.

Manslaughter is a lesser kind of criminal homicide than murder. Manslaughter typically does not involve any malice or murderous intent, and is usually defined in one of two ways. First, manslaughter may occur in the heat of passion. The most common example of this is if a man walks in on his wife in bed with another man and he immediately takes out a gun and shoots and kills her. This is considered manslaughter because the killing came as an instinctual and emotional response. The man to not have time to think or cool off before his actions. The man left the room, gone down to the kitchen, hunted around for a big knife, and then gone back upstairs to kill his wife, that could be first degree murder because he had enough time to plan the death while he went down and got the murder weapon. The second common form of manslaughter involves negligence, though not to the seriousness of the previous example for second degree homicide. The common form of manslaughter may be the death from a car accident in which the driver was engaging in negligent behavior such as texting and not paying attention while driving.

Felony murder is a death that occurs during the commission of a felony, regardless of whether the death was an accident or natural and irrespective of who the actual killer is. For example, if Bobby's lit an allegedly-abandoned building on fire and a homeless man died inside, Bobby could be charged with felony murder, which is considered a first degree murder. Or if Luke is robbing the Bank of America and he pulls a gun on the elderly female bank teller, and if she freaks out and falls over dead from a heart attack, Luke can be charged with her death because her death is the direct result of his criminal behavior. The felony murder rule originates out of the idea of transferred intent. Since the offender intended to do a bad thing, he's responsible for any consequences of that bad thing, even if those consequences are unintended. Different states have different rules regarding felony murder. In some states, the felony offense can only be rape, robbery, arson, or burglary. In other states, it is often used to charge co-defendants with more serious crimes. For example, if two people engaged in a robbery but only one person pulled the trigger, the other defendant can still be charged with murder because a death resulted of his engaging in the criminal behavior of robbery.

The felony murder rule can also be applied to contract killings or conspiracies to commit murder. Felony murderers account for 40% of people on death row. Most of these are from deaths that resulted during the commission of a robbery or rape. Note, however, that few of those who have actually been executed have been executed for felony murder. One local example is a case in which Buford White stood guard outside a house while two men went in and looked for drugs. While inside, they killed six of the houses occupants. He was held criminally liable and executed in 1987. The two shooters were also executed as well. So what is the purpose of having different types of criminal homicides and different degrees of murder? The concept originated in the 1800s so that the death penalty could be reserved for the worst type of crime. In colonial America, people were executed for a wide variety of offenses, including robbery, adultery, stealing a horse, engaging in witchcraft, or working on a Sunday.

By creating different levels of seriousness of homicide, it is possible to differentiate levels of responsibility so that the person who planned and plotted their killing will be punished at a greater extent than someone who may have killed unintentionally. But who decides what type of homicide a death is? In each jurisdiction, it is up to the district attorney or the lead prosecutor to distinguish what type of homicide a death is. In fact, it is up to the prosecutor to decide whether or not a crime occurred. That is, the prosecutor can designate a homicide as justifiable or the prosecutor may not charge someone if there's not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. One of the challenges in determining what degree of homicide a death may be is that these definitions are subjective and fluid. They are not set in stone. For example, how long does someone have to pre-meditate before killing can be considered first degree? Four days? Two hours? Six seconds? There is no hard and fast rule, and it's up to the prosecutor to determine whether or not there's evidence that the murder was premeditated and whether or not that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Next, I will give you some different examples of real-life homicide cases. Can you identify what type of homicide each one is? What type of homicide is this. Freddy was on the porch trying to load his legally-licensed and registered rifle. He was struggling because the frame of the gun was bent and the clip wouldn't load easily. While he was struggling, his 15-year-old neighbor, Jacob, walked up and asked Freddy what he was up to. At that time, the gun suddenly went off and killed Jacob. What type of homicide is this? If you said second degree murder, you would be correct. Although this seems like it may have been an accidental or excusable homicide at first, the fact that the gun was bent shows that Freddie was negligent and by struggling to load his gun on his porch while other people were around shows extreme indifference to human life. This is not first degree murder because there was no premeditation or intent. Freddy did not plan on killing Jacob. It happened as a consequence of this extreme recklessness. What type of homicide is this? Frank just won $1,244 at the Casino and was on his way at the cashier to redeem his voucher when Eugene snatched the voucher from his hands and ran. But he didn't get very far before the cops caught him. Frank identified Eugene as the robber and told the cops he wanted to prosecute. But while he was giving a statement, Frank clutched his chest and died of a heart attack. What type of homicide is this? If you said felony murder, you would be correct.

A felony murder does not require the intent to kill. It just requires a death that is a direct consequence of the felony, even if the death is natural or accidental. In this case, Frank's death is a direct result of his being robbed by Eugene. Remember, though, that it's up to the prosecutor to decide what the charges are. So although this may be a felony murder, which carries the same punishments as first degree murder, it could be in excessive punishment given the situation. The prosecutor has to treat each case differently and take the individual circumstances and strength of evidence into account before determining charges. What type of homicide is this? In the middle of the night, John broke into Jessica's home and kidnapped her. He forced her into his car and kept her tied up at his house for three days. After he beat her and sexually assaulted her, John strangled her so she could not tell on him and he hid the body in a nearby landfill. What type of homicide is this? This is a fairly clear-cut case of a first degree murder. It shows that the crime was deliberate and thought out. He kept her tied up and killed her so that she could not tell on him, and he purposely hid the body. This example is based on the Jessica Lunsford case in Homosassa, Florida. In 2005, she was a nineyear-old girl who was abducted from her home held captive by John Couey for three days before he buried her under his porch. She was still alive when she was buried. Couey had an extensive criminal history, and the case was tried as a capital or death penalty case.

John Couey was sentenced to death in 2007, although he died from complications related to cancer in 2009 while awaiting his first appeal. What type of homicide is this? After a night of partying with summer friends, Ryan lent his car to Alan and went home to bed. Alan and three other people drove to Christine's house, where they proceeded to steal a safe containing one pound of marijuana and $425. One of the robbers Charles used a shotgun he found in the house to bludgeon Christine to death. What type of homicide is this? For Alan, Charles, and the two other men in the house robbing Christine, this is first degree murder. Because all of the men were in the house during the commission of the crime, they could all be charged under the felony murder rule, even though Charles was the only one who did the actual killing. What about Ryan, though? Would he be charged with homicide? Yes, the prosecutor charged Ryan with felony murder also and charged him as an accomplished because allegedly Ryan knew that his friends were planning the robbery, an allegation that he denies.

Further, the prosecutor explained no car, no murder. Further, the victim's father concurred-- it never would have happened unless Ryan Hall lent the car. It was as good as if he were there. This is referring to a real life case of Ryan Hall, who is currently serving a life sentence of a Wakulla Correctional Facility southwest of Tallahassee. For more information on his case, click the photo to hyperlink to a New York Times story. This case highlights the power of the prosecutor and the discretion that he or she has in determining who to charge and what to charge them with. And one more example. What type of homicide is this? Joe saw a pair of men outside his neighbor's house. He thought they were trying to burglarize the house. Joe called 911, but he also went and got his shotgun. The 911 operator told Joe to wait for the police and not to confront the men. Joe decided that it would take the police too long to arrive to apprehend the burglars, so we went outside and shot the two men in the back. What type of homicide is this? This one is also an actual case, and the actual charges may surprise you. There were none. The prosecutor in this jurisdiction determined that Joe was acting in defense of his own and neighbor's property. This is the actual case of Joe Horn, and is another example of the discretion of the prosecutor to decide the charges. Another prosecutor may have charged Joe with first degree murder and may have reasoned that Joe planned this murder because he had time to get his shotgun and he deliberated about it because he ignored the 911 operator. While this case shocked the nation, Joe was awarded neighbor of the year in his community.

Now that we know different types of homicides, you should remember that not all murders are first degree murderers that can be punished with the death penalty. Only the most serious murders are death eligible, which means that the punishment can potentially be death. Death eligible offenders have committed what is referred to as a capital crime. Capital crimes are those in which the potential punishment is death. For the 50 states, first degree murder is the only capital crime. For the federal government, spying, treason, terrorism, and trafficking in massive quantities of drugs are also capital offenses. So we just learned that for the 50 states, the only crime that is punishable by death are first degree murderers, which includes felony murder.

But I also mentioned previously that only the most serious types of murders or the ones that are considered the most offensive or especially bad are capital crimes. That is, in order for an offender to be death eligible, his murder must have been especially bad. But this, of course, brings up a question. How do you think or what do you think constitutes an especially bad murder? This is one of the challenges facing the criminal justice system even today. The death penalty is considered the worst form of punishment, and because of its seriousness and intractability, the Supreme Court has felt that it should be reserved for the worst crimes.