What does 'Homicide' even mean?
Homicide simply means the killing of another person, whether lawful or unlawful, intentional or unintentional.
Lawful types of homicide: killings during war, killing in self-defense, state executions, mercy killings, legal retributions, or to prevent the commission of a felony (such as when a police officer or legally armed citizen kill a suspect during a shootout).
Each nation deals with homicide laws differently, and even in the United States, individual states have differences in murder laws; both the classifications and the severity of punishment. For example, murder under Islamic law is generally treated as a civil infraction, as opposed to criminal. The family of the murdered individual can either take the life of the murderer in retribution, or accept a monetary compensation, called a wergild. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica write:
Japan reserves its harshest penalties for the murder of one’s own lineal descendents, and Italy allows for mitigated punishment if killers acted from a sudden intense passion to avenge their honour. European codes, like Anglo-American codes, distinguish between intentional and other felony murders on the one hand and reckless, negligent, and provoked murders on the other. In all systems the most important distinction relevant to sentencing is that between conduct that is socially dangerous and conduct that is merely reckless (i.e., between acts of intent and acts of passion).
However, across the U.S., there are 2 main types of criminal homicide: manslaughter and murder.
There are 3 types of manslaughter: involuntary, voluntary, and vehicular. Involuntary manslaughter is what the general definition refers to, and voluntary is generally when a murder charge is reduced because of extenuating circumstances, such as extreme passion.
There are 4 broad classifications of murder: first-degree, second-degree, and felony. Murder is distinguished from manslaughter as being intentional, unlawful, and requiring proof of malice aforethought (not to be confused with premeditation).
The difference between malice aforethought and premeditation is the specificity to which the accused planned the crime. Malice aforethought is broad enough to apply to intent to kill, intent to cause grave bodily harm to another, intent to commit a dangerous felony, or extremely reckless indifference to human life. Premeditation, in a court of law, refers specifically to the intention to kill. This necessitates proof that the murderer had planned out how they were going to kill their victim. If the accused had simply planned to grievously injure another human, and the injury resulted in death, this could still be tried as murder, but the court would be dealing with malice aforethought rather than premeditation. The third type of malice aforethought is the intent to commit a felony. If an individual is, say, robbing a bank and accidentally runs over a pedestrian while fleeing the scene of the crime, that individual can be tried for murder. Extremely reckless indifference to human life, also known as acting with “depraved indifference” to human life, refers to a situation when the defendant acted in a way that s/he knew ran an unusually high risk of the death of another person(s), but proceeded with the act regardless of the consequences. If another died because of this indifference to life, the defendant can be tried for murder. Of course, determination of the defendant's knowledge about the risk of his/her actions is subjective to the court trying the case.
Manslaughter is generally defined as the unlawful killing of another person without malice aforethought. Manslaughter can refer to the killing of another because of drunk driving, the killing of another in an act of extreme emotion (or passion), or criminally negligent or reckless conduct resulting in the death of another person.
Most all states make the distinction between first- and second-degree murder, with first-degree murder encompassing four different types of killing. This includes premeditated murder, which can be difficult to distinguish from a sudden impulse killing, as the length of time of the premeditation does not factor into the classification. This also encompasses intention homicides committed in the act of a violent felony, including burglary, robbery, arson, kidnapping, escape and sex crimes. The third type of homicide included in this ruling refers to the killing of another with poison, explosives, or lying in wait for the victim. The fourth type of homicide specifically refers to murder by torture. This differs from the accidental killing of another through the intent to cause great physical harm, because the intent behind this type of first-degree murder would be the intent to torture a person to death.
Second-degree murder generally is ruled to be any sort of killing that involves malice aforethought, but not specifically designated as a first-degree murder.
Felony murders are encompassed by first- and second-degree murders. This is where the only intent needed to be proven is the intent to commit a felony. The defendant did not have to actually have any intent to murder.
Finally, capital murder is defined as first degree murder accompanied by any number of aggravating factors. These aggravating factors vary from state to state, but some of the more standard ones are the killing of a police officer in the course of his duty, the killing of a judge or of a witness in a trial with the intent to influence judicial proceedings, multiple killings and murders for hire. If a defendant is convicted of capital murder in a state that authorizes execution, he can be given the death penalty.
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