Third-degree murder: Difference between revisions

Help

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Latest revision as of 00:43, 25 May 2024

Redirect to:

Murder in United States law#Degrees

This page is a redirect. The following categories are used to track and monitor this redirect:

With history: This is a redirect from a page containing substantive page history. This page is kept as a redirect to preserve its former content and attributions. Please do not remove the tag that generates this text (unless the need to recreate content on this page has been demonstrated), nor delete this page.
- This template should not be used for redirects having some edit history but no meaningful content in their previous versions, nor for redirects created as a result of a page merge (use {{R from merge}} instead), nor for redirects from a title that forms a historic part of Wikipedia (use {{R with old history}} instead).

From a subtopic: This is a redirect from a subtopic of the target article or section.
- If the redirected subtopic could potentially have its own article in the future, then also tag the redirect with {{R with possibilities}} and {{R printworthy}}.

From a printworthy page title: This is a redirect from a title that would be helpful in a printed or CD/DVD version of Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:Printability and Version 1.0 Editorial Team for more information.

From a cross-project redirect: This is a redirect from a title linked to an item on Wikidata. The Wikidata item linked to this page is third-degree murder (Q54322305).
- Use this template only on hard redirects – for soft redirects use {{Soft redirect with Wikidata item}}.

When appropriate, protection levels are automatically sensed, described and categorized.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Third-degree_murder&oldid=1225528053"

Hidden categories:

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+#REDIRECT [[Murder in United States law#Degrees]]
-{{short description|American category of murder in three states}}
+{{Redirect category shell|
-{{mergeto|Murder (United States law)|discuss=Talk:Murder (United States law)#Proposed merge from Third-degree murder|date=June 2020}}
+{{R with history}}
+{{R from subtopic}}
-'''Third-degree murder''' is a category of [[murder]] defined in [[State law (United States)|the laws]] of three [[U.S. state|states in the United States]]: [[Florida]], [[Minnesota]], and [[Pennsylvania]]. It was also formerly defined in [[New Mexico]] (which once had five degrees of murder) and [[Wisconsin]].
+{{R printworthy}}
+{{R with Wikidata item}}
-Depending on the state, third-degree murder may include [[felony murder]] regardless of the underlying felony, felony murder only where the underlying felony is non-violent, or [[depraved-heart murder]]. It is punishable by a maximum of 40 years imprisonment in Florida (in the case of a violent [[career criminal]]) and Pennsylvania, and 25 years imprisonment in Minnesota.
+}}
-==Background and history==
-The first division of the general crime of [[murder]] into graded subcategories was enacted into the [[law of Pennsylvania]] in 1794.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1427&context=flr|first=Frank|last=Brenner|title=The Impulsive Murder and the Degree Device|journal=Fordham Law Review|volume=22|issue=3|page=274|year=1953|access-date=2018-03-13|ref=harv}}</ref> This enactment is often explained in terms of a desire to narrow the scope of application of [[Capital punishment in Pennsylvania|capital punishment in that state]] and in the other states which subsequently graded murder into "first" and "second" degrees. The English [[common law]], which had been [[reception statute|received]] into the laws of the [[U.S. state]]s, at the time applied capital punishment to a large number of crimes; as a result, states statutorily divided the crime of murder into first and second degrees, and began applying capital punishment only to criminals convicted of first-degree murder.<ref>{{harvnb|Brenner|1953|p=275}}</ref> By 1953 three states—namely [[Florida]], [[Minnesota]], and [[Wisconsin]]—had further created the subcategory of third-degree murder.<ref name="Brenner 1953 278">{{harvnb|Brenner|1953|p=278}}</ref>
-==By jurisdiction==
-===Overview===
-{{see also|Murder (United States law)}}
-[[United States federal law]], and the laws of the majority of states and territories, divide murder into separate crimes known as first-degree murder and second-degree murder, while the rest use other names for different categories of murder or do not divide murder into separate categories at all. However, {{as of|2017|lc=y}} only three states have a crime called third-degree murder.
-===Florida===
-{{see also|Felony murder rule (Florida)}}
-[[Law of Florida|Florida law]] divides murder into three degrees. First-degree murder comprises premeditated murders and [[felony murder]]s where the underlying [[felony]] belongs to an enumerated list of violent or drug-related felonies; second-degree murder is [[depraved-heart murder]]; third-degree murder is felony murder where the underlying felony is not one of the enumerated felonies falling under first-degree felony murder.<ref name="Brenner 1953 278"/>
-The exact statutory definition of third-degree murder is "[t]he unlawful killing of a human being, when perpetrated without any design to effect death, by a person engaged in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate, any felony other than" nineteen enumerated categories of felonies. It constitutes a second-degree felony.<ref name="FloridaSection">{{cite web|url=http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0782/Sections/0782.04.html|title=FL Stat § 782.04. Murder.|publisher=Florida Legislature|year=2017|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> Second-degree felonies are punishable by a maximum of 15 years' imprisonment ordinarily, a maximum of 30 years for a [[habitual offender|habitual felony offender]], or 30 to 40 years for a violent career criminal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0775/Sections/0775.082.html|title=FL Stat § 775.082. Penalties; applicability of sentencing structures; mandatory minimum sentences for certain reoffenders previously released from prison.|publisher=Florida Legislature|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0775/Sections/0775.084.html|title=FL Stat § 775.084 Violent career criminals; habitual felony offenders and habitual violent felony offenders; three-time violent felony offenders; definitions; procedure; enhanced penalties or mandatory minimum prison terms.|publisher=Florida Legislature|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref>
-The nineteen enumerated categories of felonies falling under first-degree murder rather than third-degree murder are [[Illegal drug trade|drug trafficking]]; [[arson]]; [[sexual battery]]; [[robbery]]; [[burglary]]; [[kidnapping]]; [[prison escape]]; aggravated [[child abuse]]; aggravated [[elder abuse|abuse of an elderly person]] or [[Disability abuse|disabled adult]]; [[aircraft hijacking|aircraft piracy]]; [[drug distribution|unlawful distribution]] of cocaine, opium, or other [[controlled substance]]s when such drug is proven to be the proximate cause of the death of the user; [[carjacking]]; [[home invasion|home-invasion]] robbery; aggravated [[stalking]]; murder of another human being; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; aggravated fleeing or eluding with serious bodily injury or death; [[Resisting arrest|resisting]] an officer with violence to his or her person; or [[terrorism]] or an act in furtherance of terrorism.<ref name="FloridaSection"/>
-===Minnesota===
-Minnesota law originally defined third-degree murder solely as [[depraved-heart murder]] ("without intent to effect the death of any person, caus[ing] the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life").<ref name="Minnesota">{{cite web|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=609.195|title=MN Stat § 609.195. Murder in the third degree.|publisher=Office of the Revisor of Statutes|location=Minnesota|year=2017|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://statelaws.findlaw.com/minnesota-law/minnesota-second-degree-murder.html|title=Minnesota Second-Degree Murder|website=findlaw.com|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> In 1987, an additional drug-related provision ("without intent to cause death, proximately caus[ing] the death of a human being by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging, distributing, or administering a controlled substance classified in [[Controlled Substances Act|Schedule I or II]]") was added to the definition of third-degree murder.<ref name="Minnesota"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.startribune.com/drug-dealers-charged-with-murder-in-twin-cities-heroin-overdose-deaths/205162571/?c=y&page=1|first=Matt|last=McKinney|title=Drug dealers charged with murder in Twin Cities heroin overdose deaths; As heroin deaths hit record highs across the Twin Cities, angry prosecutors are more likely to file third-degree murder charges against dealers.|work=Minnesota Star-Tribune|date=2013-04-29|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> Up until the early 2000s, prosecutions under that provision were rare, but they began to rise in the 2010s. Some reports linked this increase in prosecutions to the [[opioid epidemic in the United States]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/01/23/regional/murder-charges-overdose-cases|first=Conrad|last=Wilson|title=Murder charges in Minn. overdose cases on the rise|work=MPR News|date=2013-01-23|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref>
-Minnesota law also defines the crime of third-degree [[feticide|murder of an unborn child]], with the same elements of depraved mind and lack of intent to kill distinguishing it from first- or second-degree murder of an unborn child.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1539&context=wmlr|first=Sandra L.|last=Smith|title=Fetal Homicide: Woman or Fetus as Victim? A Survey of Current State Approaches and Recommendations for Future State Application|journal=William & Mary Law Review|volume=41|issue=5|year=1998|access-date=2018-03-16|ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="MinnesotaUnborn">{{cite web|url=https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=609.2663|title=MN Stat § 609.2665. Murder of unborn child in the third degree.|publisher=Office of the Revisor of Statutes|location=Minnesota|year=2017|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> Both third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child are punishable by a maximum of 25 years' imprisonment.<ref name="Minnesota"/><ref name="MinnesotaUnborn"/>
-===New Mexico===
-New Mexico once divided the crime of murder into five different degrees. A legal scholar writing in 1953 (by which time this level of division had been abolished) described this as the "all-time 'record'" for dividing murder into degrees.<ref name="Brenner 1953 278"/> The definitions were as follows:
-* first degree: premeditated killing (punished by death)
-* second degree murder was further divided into two kinds
-** killing while committing a felony (punished by 7 to 14 years imprisonment)
-** killing with an extremely reckless state of mind (punished by life imprisonment)
-* third degree: assisting suicide, killing of an unborn child, and other acts of that nature (punished by 3 to 10 years imprisonment)
-* fourth degree: killing in the heat of passion, killing while committing a misdemeanour (punished by 1 to 7 years imprisonment)
-* fifth degree: "every other killing" that is not justifiable (punished by a maximum fine of $1,000, up to 10 years imprisonment, or some combination these)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gómez|first=Laura E.|date=2000|title=Race, Colonialism, and Criminal Law: Mexicans and the American Criminal Justice System in Territorial New Mexico|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3115133|journal=Law & Society Review|volume=34|issue=4|pages=1129–1202|doi=10.2307/3115133|issn=0023-9216}}</ref>
-In the 1884 Compiled Laws of New Mexico, third-degree murder included [[assisted suicide|assisting a suicide]] (§ 696), killing of an unborn child by injury to the mother (§ 697), administration of [[abortifacient]] causing death of an unborn child or its mother (§ 698), unintentional killing of a human being in the [[heat of passion]] in a cruel or unusual manner (§ 699), and unintentional death caused by an intoxicated physician (§ 701).<ref>{{cite book|title=Compiled Laws of New Mexico|publisher=New Mexican Printing Company|year=1885|editor-last=Bartlett|editor-first=Edward L.|chapter=Title IX (Crimes and Offences – Punishments), Chapter 2 (Against Lives and Persons)|access-date=2018-03-13|chapterurl=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112203967676;view=1up;seq=428}}</ref>
-===Pennsylvania===
-[[Law of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania law]] defines third-degree murder as a murder which is neither a first-degree murder ("criminal homicide ... committed by an intentional killing") nor a second-degree murder ("committed while defendant was engaged as a principal or an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony"). For purposes of that section, "felony" is specifically defined as "engaging in or being an accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempting to commit robbery, rape, or deviate sexual intercourse by force or threat of force, arson, burglary or kidnapping."<ref name="Pennsylvania">{{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=18&div=0&chpt=25&sctn=2&subsctn=0|title=18 PA Cons Stat § 2502. Murder|publisher=Pennsylvania General Assembly|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> There are also parallel crimes of first-degree, second-degree, and third-degree murder of an unborn child.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1998|p=1873}} and {{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=18&div=0&chpt=26&sctn=4&subsctn=0|title=18 PA Cons Stat § 2604. Murder of unborn child|publisher=Pennsylvania General Assembly|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> There does not exist the crime of third-degree murder of a law-enforcement officer, only first-degree and second-degree. Third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child are punishable by a maximum of 40 years' imprisonment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=18&div=0&chpt=11&sctn=2&subsctn=0|title=18 PA Cons Stat § 1102. Sentence for murder, murder of unborn child and murder of law enforcement officer|publisher=Pennsylvania General Assembly|access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref>
-Third-degree murder was introduced to Pennsylvania law in a 1974 amendment, at the same time as second-degree murder was redefined as felony murder; prior to that, second-degree murder had been defined as any murder not a first-degree murder.<ref>{{cite book|chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7JZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22murder+of+the+third+degree%22|chapter=Murder of the third degree|title=Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia|edition=second|publisher=G. T. Bisel Company|year=2008|isbn=978-0327009634|page=307}}</ref> The common-law definition of murder as homicide "with [[malice aforethought]]" remains in force in Pennsylvania. A conviction for third-degree murder does not require intent to kill as in first-degree murder, but it still requires [[malice (law)|malice]]. In general, Pennsylvania courts have ruled that the standard of "malice" required for a conviction of third-degree murder is the same as that required for [[aggravation (law)|aggravated]] assault: not just "ordinary [[negligence]]" nor "mere [[recklessness (law)|recklessness]]", but "a higher degree of culpability, i.e., that which considers and then disregards the threat necessarily posed to human life by the offending conduct".<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://scopareview.com/com-v-packer/|first=Joel|last=Ready|title=Com v. Packer: DUI on immediate and debilitating intoxicants satisfies mens rea for third-degree murder|journal=SCOPA Review|date=August 2017|access-date=2018-03-14}} {{cite case|litigants=Commonwealth v. Packer|reporter=No. 114 MAP 2016|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1871490.html|access-date=2018-03-14}}</ref> A defense of [[Diminished responsibility|diminished capacity]] may reduce first-degree murder to third-degree murder.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2845&context=vlr|first=Robert|last=Ebby|title=Constitutional Law: When Does Guilty of Third Degree Murder Equal Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity?|journal=Villanova Law Review|volume=38|issue=4|year=1993|access-date=2018-03-13}} {{cite case|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/pennsylvania/supreme-court/1987/513-pa-381-1.html|litigants=Commonwealth v. Terry|vol=513|reporter=Pa.|opinion=381|year=1987}}</ref>
-The crime known as [[drug delivery resulting in death]]<ref name="DDRiD">{{cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/codes/pennsylvania/2010/title-18/chapter-25/2506/|title=18 PA Con Stat § 2506 (2010). Drug delivery resulting in death.|website=justia.com|year=2010|access-date=2018-03-14}} {{cite web|url=https://law.justia.com/codes/pennsylvania/2016/title-18/chapter-25/section-2506/|title=18 PA Con Stat § 2506 (2016). Drug delivery resulting in death|year=2016|website=justia.com|access-date=2018-03-14}}</ref> had originally been classified as another form of third-degree murder under Pennsylvania law. In ''Commonwealth v. Ludwig'' (2005), the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]] ruled that this meant that conviction for the crime required the same element of malice as in any other third-degree murder. In response to this ruling, the [[Pennsylvania General Assembly]] amended the definition of the crime in 2011 to reclassify it as general criminal [[homicide]] rather than specifically as third-degree murder, thus removing the requirement of malice.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://cumberlink.com/news/local/closer_look/homicide-without-the-intent-to-kill/article_6424a082-243e-5ad3-a803-e81e73281bfb.html|first=Josh|last=Vaughn|title=Homicide without the intent to kill|newspaper=The Sentinel|access-date=2018-03-14}} {{cite case|litigants=Commonwealth v. Ludwig|vol=583|reporter=Pa.|opinion=6|year=2005|url=https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/591474deadd7b049343a707b|accessdate=2018-03-14}}</ref> However, the maximum sentence remained the same 40 years' imprisonment as for third-degree murder.<ref name="DDRiD"/>
-===Wisconsin===
-{{see also|Felony murder rule (Wisconsin)}}
-Soon after statehood, Wisconsin enacted statutes repealing the common law crime of murder, creating the statutory crime of murder and dividing the statutory crime of murder into three degrees, with the third encompassing felony murder. For example, the 1849 Revised Statutes defined third-degree murder as a killing "perpetrated without any design to effect the death, by a person engaged in the commission of any felony".<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1635&context=mulr|first=Michael J.|last=Roman|title='Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once More': A Call to Re-Evaluate the Felony-Murder Doctrine in Wisconsin in the Wake of ''State v. Oimen'' and ''State v. Rivera''|journal=Marquette Law Review|volume=77|issue=4|year=1994|pages=792–93|access-date=2018-03-13|ref=harv}}</ref> The 1956 Criminal Code in § 940.03 defined third-degree murder as causing the death of another "in the course of committing or attempting to commit a felony ... as a natural and probable consequence of the commission of or attempt to commit the felony", and provided that the sentence for the underlying felony could thus be extended by 15 years. This was described by some commentators as a "hybrid" between the common-law felony murder rule and the [[civil law (legal system)|civil law]] approach of treating an unintentional death as a "penalty-enhancer" to the punishment for the underlying felony.<ref>{{harvnb|Roman|1994|p=795}}</ref> The 1988 revision of § 940.03 removed the term "third-degree murder" entirely and re-entitled the section as "felony murder".<ref>{{harvnb|Roman|1994|p=804}}</ref>
-==Controversies==
-During the [[George Floyd protests]], the state of Minnesota was criticized for using 3rd degree murder charge against Dereck Chauvin instead of 2nd degree murder. The charge was later increased to 2nd degree.
-==See also==
-{{Portal|Law}}
-* [[Criminal negligence]]
-* [[Crime of passion]]
-==References==
-{{reflist}}
-==Further reading==
-*{{cite journal|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2681&context=wlulr|title=A Comparative Review of States' Recognition of Reduced Degrees of Felony Murder|journal=Washington and Lee Law Review|volume=40|issue=4|year=1983|access-date=2018-03-13}}
-[[Category:Murder]]
-[[Category:Florida law]]
-[[Category:Minnesota law]]
-[[Category:New Mexico law]]
-[[Category:Pennsylvania law]]
-[[Category:Wisconsin law]]