Term
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Definition
| homicide law once said that to be a person, and therefore a homicide victim, a baby had to be "born alive" and capable or breathing and maintaining a heartbeat on its own |
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Term
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Definition
| Law defining when life begins for purposes of applying the law of criminal homicide |
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Term
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Definition
| The act or practice of causing or hastening the death of a person who is suffering from an incurable or terminal disease or condition, especially a painful one |
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Term
| Presumption of bodily integrity |
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Definition
| The principle of personal autonomy presumes that every individual controls the integrity of her own body |
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Term
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Definition
| Intentionally causing the death of another person with malice aforethought |
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Term
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Definition
| Unlawful killing of another person without malice aforethought |
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Term
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Definition
| Killing in self-defense, capital punishment, and police use of deadly force |
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Term
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Definition
| Accidental killings done by someone "not of sound memory and discretion" (insane and immature) |
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Term
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Definition
| A homicide that's neither justified nor excused |
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Term
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Definition
| Killing on purpose after planning it |
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Term
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Definition
| Extremely reckless killing |
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Term
| Intent to cause serious bodily injury murder |
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Definition
| When death results following acts triggered by the intent to inflict serious bodily injury short of death |
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Term
| "express" malice aforethought |
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Definition
| Intentional killings planned in advance |
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Term
| "implied" malice aforethought |
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Definition
| Killings that weren't intentional or planned but still resulted from the intention to do harm |
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Term
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Definition
| Causing a death of a person |
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Term
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Definition
| The purposeful, knowing, reckless, or negligent killing of a person |
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Term
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Definition
| Premeditated, deliberate killings and other particularly heinous capital murders |
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Term
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Definition
| Death penalty cases in death penalty states and "mandatory life sentence without parole" cases in non-death penalty states |
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Term
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Definition
| A mandate 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 |
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Term
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Definition
| Must be limited by the criteria established and announced before the decision to sentence the defendant to death but includes aggravating factors for and mitigating factors against imposing death |
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Term
| Specific intent plus real premeditation deliberation |
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Definition
| The law looks at three areas to determine whether a killing was premeditated or deliberate: signs of planning, motive, and deliberate method in the killing |
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Term
| Equivalent of specific intent |
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Definition
| Some courts define a willful, premeditated, deliberate killing as the same as specific intent, which may render the difference between first- and second-degree murder meaningless |
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Term
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Definition
| A catchall offense including killings that are neither manslaughter nor first-degree murder; unintentional killings |
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Term
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Definition
| Unintentional deaths that occur during the commission of felonies |
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Term
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Definition
| Intentional killings committed in the sudden heat of passion upon adequate provocation |
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Term
| Adequate provocation (voluntary manslaughter) |
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Definition
| The circumstance element in voluntary manslaughter that is the trigger that sets off the sudden killing of another person; acts that qualify as reducing murder to manslaughter |
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Term
| Understandable provocation |
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Definition
| A provocation to kill in the heat of passion that's recognized by law and will reduce murder to manslaughter |
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Term
| Objective test of cooling-off time |
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Definition
| Involuntary manslaughter, the element of whether in similar circumstances a reasonable person would've had time to cool off |
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Term
| Last-straw rule/long smoldering or slow burn rule |
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Definition
| A smoldering resentment or pent-up rage resulting from earlier insults or humiliating events, culminating in a triggering event that, by itself, might be insufficient to provoke the deadly act |
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Term
| Extreme mental or emotional disturbance (voluntary manslaughter) |
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Definition
| A defense that reduces criminal homicide to manslaughter if emotional disturbance provides a reasonable explanation for the defendant's actions |
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Term
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Definition
| Defense to murder that a husband found his wife in the act of adultery |
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Term
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Definition
| Criminal homicides caused either by recklessness or gross criminal negligence |
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Term
| Criminal negligence manslaughter |
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Definition
| Includes the mental elements of both recklessness and negligence |
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Term
| Unlawful act manslaughter (misdemeanor manslaughter) |
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Definition
| Involuntary manslaughter based on deaths that take place during the commission of another crime |
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Term
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Definition
| A crime not inherently bad or evil but merely prohibited |
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