Criminal Law Assignment: Homicidal Offenses, Definitions, and Analysis

This document provides a comprehensive solution to a criminal law assignment focusing on homicidal offenses. The assignment begins by defining key terms such as homicide, murder, manslaughter, malice aforethought, premeditation, and various related concepts like voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, justifiable and excusable homicide, doctor-assisted suicide, and abortion-related terms. The solution then addresses four discussion questions. The first question explores the circumstances presented by the prosecution to establish premeditation or malice aforethought. The second question examines the legitimacy of a jury finding a defendant guilty of manslaughter even with evidence of premeditation. The third question discusses how the prosecution can establish corpus delicti when the victim's body is missing. Finally, the fourth question analyzes the legal aspects of abortion, specifically referencing Roe v. Wade and fetal viability. The solution provides detailed answers to these questions, supported by relevant legal principles and cited sources.

Running Head: CRIMINAL LAW
Definition of Key Terms
1. It is an act of killing that result in death, which can be due to accidents, reckless and
negligible behaviour, without any intention of killing or prior plan of killing.
2. According to Florida Statute, version 82.04(1), it is an unlawful killing of a human
without any justification, and it is generally intentional and planned.
3. According to “2019 Florida Statutes”, Chapter 782- Homicide, version 782.07
manslaughter can be defined as an act of human killing, by disrespect for human life
(leg.state.fl.us, 2020).
4. It is a process of killing through “premeditation” generally speculated as a planned
murder.
5. Heat of passion murder generally occurs in a provocative situation, where the
murderer acts out of impulse without any prior reflection.
6. It is an act of intentionally killing oneself, or causing self-death.
7. The act of premeditation is referred to any crime that was planned and included high
intent of committing the crime or act.
8. Voluntary manslaughter generally includes intentional acts of killing under
provocative situations in “heat of passion”.
9. Court justifies manslaughter to be involuntary when they observe that the defendant
has no intention to kill, but the killing has happened due to negligible and reckless
behaviour.
10. Justifiable Homicide is a type of killing without intent, and justifiable homicide can
be cases like the accidental firing of a gun and killing, killing in the process of self-
defence and much more.

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11. According to “2019 Florida Statutes”, “Title XLVI”, “chapter 782”, excusable
homicide occurrence is completely accidental without an unlawful intent, and without
any illegal weapon (leg.state.fl.us, 2020).
12. It is a practice by physicians, where the physician provides medication to an ill person
according to his will.
13. It is a concept where human beings are allowed to take decisions of their death in case
of suffering from terminal disease or any other cases, which does not show health
improvement.
14. Provocation is an act done by a person intentionally triggering anger or excitement in
another person.
15. It is an intention of murdering a person by injuring through means of dangerous
weapon or action.
16. It is extended form of murder and according to the U.S government whether the
murder is voluntary or involuntary, it is considered a felony murder and the defendant
is liable for the death of the victim.
17. A murder had happened by accident or without any prior planning, is second-degree
murder
18. Depraved heart murder is killing with major negligence, and the person causing the
death of another person will be charged with first-degree murder.
19. It is the unintentional killing of human being, especially an unborn child, while
operating a vehicle.
20. This is a term is referred to as the evidence or the existence of the object on which
the crime has been done.
21. It is a negligible act done by a person, which is caused by one person and the
consequences are suffered by someone else

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22. A brain dead person is devoid of brain functions, meaning the person will never
regain consciousness without any external support (Nhs.uk, 2020).
23. This is a rule, which makes the defendant accused of homicide free of its
responsibilities if the victim or plaintiff survives for one year and one day.
24. The intention of helping someone for taking his or her life. According to the Suicide
Act 1961, assisted suicide is illegal (bbc.com, 2020).
25. A process of terminating a pregnancy by removing the embryo before its survival out
of the womb.
26. According to U.S constitutional law, the survival of induced fetus outside of the
womb is referred to fetal viability, whereas viability is the survival rate outside the
foetus (who.int, 2020).
27. It is mentioned in 782.36 Florida Statutes, that intentional killing of a living foetus is
called partial-birth abortion (leg.state.fl.us, 2020).

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Answer 1:
According to Dropuljic, (2017), violence has been considered a serious issue
worldwide, which have created a concern for law enforcement agencies. In the case of
premeditated and malice aforethought, crimes are not identified for many contradictions.
Prosecutions have given circumstances for premeditated murder to be like the intended plan,
by mean of provocation, anger, or revenge. Premeditated murder can be aligned to 1st-degree
murder and 2nd-degree murder.
According to prosecution, malice aforethought is also a planned murder or act, by the
proof of malice aforethought first-degree murder was determined in many jurisdictions as
well as homicides (Iles, 2018). Therefore, malice aforethought can be determined under the
circumstances of felonious homicide, having a grudge or revengeful attitude (Whitehair,
2017).
Answer 2:
Murder and manslaughter have ethical distinctions, although there are contradictions
that, they both are same and should be punished equally. Analysing a murder plot needs in
understanding the stigma that caused it, which can be meditated or unintentional, in case of
distinguishing the difference between murder and manslaughter, there is a moral parity
(Hachtel et al., 2018). According to the commission of lawful acts, the jury must decide if the
crime is heinous or less serious, as manslaughter has two diversions, they are voluntary and
involuntary (Freiberg & Stewart, (2015).). Therefore, there are cases of manslaughter where
accused kills the person without intention, but it can be due to gross negligence and disregard
for human life, which clarifies that there are many diversions in accountability of crime.
Therefore, it is not legitimate for the jury to accuse the defendant of premeditated
manslaughter, or prove the act to be justiciable.

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Answer 3:
It is very hard to prove a corpus delicit when there is no evidence of body, as the
conviction will be done on some other relatable evidence, which can prove happenings of
crime. According to the reports by Forensic science in the late 20th century, a murder
conviction can be proved even without a body. (DiBIase, & Walton, 2017). Therefore, in case
of a missing body, it is hard to make a conviction, but in that place, there is evidence like
weapons, or text messages, emails, which can acquire enough evidence to find the location of
the body.
Answer 4:
The extravagant case of Roe V. Wad, 410 U.S.113, and the Supreme Court of U.S
stated that any pregnant women have a “constitutional” right to get an abortion, for her
safety, health and convenience (Franklin, 2015). However, in this case, the State is interfering
by saying that abortion can be an act of felony if there is an abortion done even after there are
chances of foetal viability. According to Supreme Court decision in January 1993, allowed
Roe named women who were pregnant at the age of 16 to have the freedom of abortions,
putting down as ban on abortion stating unconstitutional. Therefore, even if the child is viable
outside of mother womb, they cannot prohibit it, and allow the women to have the right to
privacy and to terminate an unborn child without Government interferences.
The problem for Discussion and Solution:
In this particular case, the act can be defined as a Criminal Negligence, where due to
disagreements among a wife and a husband resulted in husband stabbing the wife. The jury
must analyse whether there is any case of premeditation, then the conviction will be
forwarded to second-degree murder (Koval & Baumann, 2019). However, the wife using
disregardful words for the husband led in an unintentional provocation that led to a murder in

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the heat of the passion. Therefore, this case of Criminal Negligence stated as a result of the
act due to disregard for human life. The murder charge may be reduced to manslaughter if the
killing is less heinous, analysing this the case can be reduced to voluntary manslaughter.
Moreover, if there is evidence that the husband stabbed her repeatedly with the knife, then the
case will not be reduced to manslaughter and will be considered second-degree murder.

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References
bbc.com, 2020. What is assisted suicide and euthanasia?. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47158287
DiBIase, T., & Walton, R. H. (2017). Long-Term Missing-Persons and No-Body Cold Case
Investigations. In Cold Case Homicides (pp. 139-150). CRC Press
(http://www.nobodymurdercases.com/no_body2.pdf)
Dropuljic, S. A. (2017). The Classification of Murder and Slaughter in the Justiciary Court
from 1625-1650: Malice, Intent and Premeditation-Food Forethought. Aberdeen
Student L. Rev., 7, 121.
Franklin, C. (2015). Roe as We Know It. Mich. L. Rev., 114, 867
(https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1245&context=mlr).
Freiberg, A., Gelb, K., & Stewart, F. (2015). Homicide law reform, provocation and
sentencing. Homicide Law Reform in Victoria: Retrospect and Prospects, 57-75.
Hachtel, H., Nixon, M., Bennett, D., Mullen, P., & Ogloff, J. (2018). Motives, offending
behavior, and gender differences in murder perpetrators with or without
psychosis. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260518774304.
Iles, F. (2018). Malice Aforethought: The Story of a Commonplace Crime. Courier Dover
Publications.
Koval, P., & Baumann, R. (2019). The Impact of Impulsivity on Suicide and Homicide
Rates (No. 1907).
leg.state.fl.us, 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?
App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0782/0782.html

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leg.state.fl.us, 2020. Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine. Retrieved 5
March 2020, from http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?
App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0782/Sections/0782.03.html
nhs.uk, 2020. Brain death. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/brain-death/
Whitehair, A. R. (2017). With Malice Aforethought? (Doctoral dissertation, CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE).
who.int, 2020. WHO | Long-term trends in fetal mortality: implications for developing
countries. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from
https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/6/07-043471/en/