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Collaborative Review
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Born-alive Rulw | the rule that to be a person, and therefore a homicide victim, a baby had to be “born alive” and capable of breathing and maintaining a heartbeat on its own |
| Feticide | the crime of killing a fetus |
| Murder | killing a person with “malice aforethought” |
| Manslaughter | killing a person without malice aforethought |
| Justifiable homicide | killing in self-defense |
| Excusable homicide | killings done by someone “not of sound memory and discretion |
| Criminal homicide | all homicides that are neither justified nor excused |
| Malice aforethought | originally the mental state of intentional killing, with some amount of spite, hate, or bad will, planned in advance of the killing |
| Depraved heart murder | extremely reckless killings |
| Intent to cause serious bodily injury murder | no intent to kill is required when a victim dies following acts triggered by the intent to inflict serious bodily injury short of death |
| Serious bodily injury | bodily injury that involves a substantial risk of death; protracted unconsciousness; extreme physical pain; protracted or obvious disfigurement; or protracted loss or substantial impairment of a function of a bodily member, organ or mental faculty |
| Express” malice aforethought | the mental element of killings that fit the original meaning of “murder”—intentional killings planned in advance |
| “Implied” malice aforethought | the mental element of intentional killings without premeditation or reasonable provocation; unintentional killings during the commission of felonies; depraved heart killings; and intent to inflict grievous bodily harm killings |
| Murder actus reus | the act of killing by poisoning, striking, starving, drowning, and a thousand other forms by which human nature can be overcome |
| Murder mens rea | can include purposeful, knowing, or reckless as the mental element in killing |
| First-degree murder | the only crime today in which the death penalty can be imposed, consisting of (1) premeditated, deliberate intent to kill murders and (2) felony murders |
| Capital cases | death penalty cases in death penalty states and “mandatory life sentence without parole” cases in non–death penalty states |
| Bifurcation procedure | the requirement that the death penalty decision be made in two phases: a trial to determine guilt and a second separate proceeding, after a finding of guilt, to consider the aggravating factors for, and mitigating factors against, capital punishment |
| Deadly weapon doctrine | one who intentionally uses a deadly weapon on another human being and thereby kills him is presumed to have formed the intent to kill |
| Second-degree murders | murders that aren’t first-degree murders, including intentional murders that weren’t premeditated or deliberate, felony murders, intent to inflict serious bodily injury murders, and depraved heart murders |
| Felony murder rule derives | unintentional deaths that occur during the commission of some felonies are murders |
| Voluntary manslaughter | suddenly and intentionally killing another person in the heat of anger following adequate provocation; elements include murder actus reus, mens rea, causation, and death |
| Adequate provocation | the requirement that the provocation for killing in anger has to be something the law recognizes, the defendant himself had to be provoked, and that a reasonable person would have been provoked |
| Objective test of cooling-off time | requires that a reasonable person under the same circumstances would have had time to cool off |
| “words can never provoke” rule | the rule that words are never adequate provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter |
| Paramour rule | the common law rule that a husband who caught his wife in the act of adultery had adequate provocation to kill; today, it applies to both parties of a marriage |
| Emotion–act distinction | separating the emotions that led to a killing from the question of whether the killing itself was reasonable |
| Act reasonableness | meaning “a finding that a reasonable person in the defendant’s shoes would have responded as violently as the defendant did” |
| Emotional reasonableness | a finding that “the defendant’s emotional outrage or passion was reasonable” |