Offense

Murder

Acts Leading to or Intending Death

Murder is the unlawful killing of another person committed with malice aforethought, the culpable mental state, generally an intent to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm, or a reckless indifference to human life, that separates it from the lesser homicide offense of manslaughter. Most common-law and civil-law jurisdictions further divide murder into degrees or equivalent gradations, typically distinguishing a premeditated, deliberate killing from one committed impulsively but still with the required intent, with the most severe gradation generally carrying the harshest sentence a jurisdiction imposes, including, where retained, capital punishment or life imprisonment. Many jurisdictions also recognize a felony-murder rule, under which a death occurring during the commission of certain other serious felonies, such as robbery or arson, can be charged as murder even absent a specific intent to kill, a doctrine that remains a significant point of comparative and reform debate in criminal law. Murder is among the most extensively studied offenses in criminology, both for what its patterns reveal about interpersonal and social violence and because its investigation historically drove the development of forensic techniques such as fingerprint identification, forensic pathology and DNA profiling.

Facts

Classification Code

Common law jurisdictions typically classify murder by degree: second-degree murder corresponds to the traditional common law definition, while first-degree murder is an aggravated form requiring factors such as premeditation, deliberation or a specific intent to kill. 1

Typical Penalty

Premeditated murder is treated as one of the most serious homicide categories and is punished more severely than manslaughter, commonly with a life sentence without parole or, in some countries, the death penalty. 1

Elements of Offense

At common law, murder is the unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being, under the king's peace, committed with malice aforethought, meaning a deliberate intent to kill or an equivalent state of extreme culpability, either express or implied. 1

Notable Example

A well documented example of the diminished-capacity defense reducing a murder charge to manslaughter is the 1978 killing of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White, whose successful diminished-capacity defense at trial became known as the Twinkie defense and led California to abolish that defense afterward. 1

Jurisdiction Variation

Jurisdictions differ sharply on how they subdivide murder: the Netherlands and Canada draw the murder and manslaughter line purely on premeditation, some United States states add a third degree of murder defined differently state to state, and English law imposes a single mandatory life sentence for murder with no formal division into degrees at all. 1

Connections

Associated With

Hate Crime

Source Wikipedia: Hate Crime

Manslaughter

Source Cornell LII Wex: Manslaughter

Exemplified By Cases

Amanda Knox Case

The case is the trial arising from the murder of Meredith Kercher, per the cited article's own title.

Source Wikipedia: Murder of Meredith Kercher

Atlanta Murders of 1979 to 1981

Source Wikipedia: Atlanta Child Murders

Beltway Snipers Case

Source Wikipedia: D.C. Sniper Attacks

BTK Case

Source Wikipedia: Dennis Rader

Colin Pitchfork Case

Source Wikipedia: Colin Pitchfork

Crippen Case

Source Wikipedia: Hawley Harvey Crippen

Francisca Rojas Case

Source Wikipedia: Francisca Rojas

Golden State Killer Case

Source Wikipedia: Joseph James DeAngelo

Green River Killer Case

Source Wikipedia: Gary Ridgway

Jack the Ripper Murders

Source Wikipedia: Jack the Ripper

Lindbergh Kidnapping

Source Wikipedia: Lindbergh Kidnapping

Night Stalker Case

Source Wikipedia: Richard Ramirez

O. J. Simpson Murder Case

Source Wikipedia: O. J. Simpson murder case

Ted Bundy Case

Source Wikipedia: Ted Bundy

Unabomber Case

Source Wikipedia: Ted Kaczynski

West Memphis Three Case

Source Wikipedia: West Memphis Three

Zodiac Killer Case

Source Wikipedia: Zodiac Killer

Sources

1. Murder (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder, lead paragraph
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse and committed with the necessary intent as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction.
Degrees section
Generally, second-degree murder is common law murder, and first-degree is an aggravated form.
Degrees section, premeditated murder passage
Premeditated murder is one of the most serious forms of homicide, and is punished more severely than manslaughter or other types of homicide, often with a life sentence without the possibility of parole, or in some countries, the death penalty.
Definition section, Blackstones common law formula
unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought, either express or implied.
Mitigating circumstances section, Diminished capacity subsection
Dan White used this defense to obtain a manslaughter conviction, instead of murder, in the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Aggravating circumstances section, closing lines
Under English criminal law, murder always carries a mandatory life sentence, but is not classified into degrees.