Also known as: homicides · homicidium
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The killing of one person by another. At common law, homicide falls into three categories: justifiable when the law expressly authorizes the act, excusable when a recognized defense eliminates liability, and criminal when the killing is unlawful and falls outside those protections. Under the Model Penal Code, criminal homicide occurs when a person purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causes the death of another human being.
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Henry Hoffman confronted an armed intruder in his home and fired a single shot that killed the intruder. The state charged Hoffman with criminal homicide. Because the killing occurred under circumstances the law expressly authorized as self-defense, the court classified it as justifiable homicide and dismissed the charge.
Hana Huang was charged with murdering a man she claimed had attacked her first. The defense introduced evidence that the victim had a reputation for violence. The prosecutor then offered testimony that the victim was known for peacefulness in the community. The court admitted the evidence to rebut the first-aggressor claim.
Heidi Henderson drove at high speed through a residential neighborhood while intoxicated and struck a pedestrian who later died. The state charged her under the Model Penal Code. Because she consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, the jury convicted her of criminal homicide.
Hope Howard, age sixteen, robbed a store without using a weapon and caused no physical injury. A court sentenced her to life without parole. On appeal the sentence was vacated because the Eighth Amendment prohibits life without parole for a juvenile convicted of a non-homicide offense.
Hilda Hernandez argued with a coworker and then retrieved a knife from a drawer. She returned and deliberately stabbed the coworker in the chest, causing death. Because no justification or mitigation applied, the court found malice aforethought and convicted her of murder rather than manslaughter.
Hannah Hughes was stabbed during a robbery and told responding officers that her attacker was a specific neighbor before she died minutes later. At trial the prosecutor offered the statement. The court admitted it as a dying declaration because the victim believed her death was imminent and spoke about the cause of her injuries.
At common law, justifiable homicide covers killings the law expressly authorizes. Excusable homicide applies when a recognized defense eliminates criminal liability. Criminal homicide includes all other unlawful killings that lack justification or excuse.
A person commits criminal homicide by purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causing the death of another human being. The Code then classifies the offense as murder, manslaughter, or negligent homicide depending on the mental state and circumstances.
…however, that prior to this point the fetus was to be regarded as part of the mother, and its destruction, therefore, was not homicide. Due to continued uncertainty about the precise time when animation occurred, to the lack of any empirical basis for the 40-80-day view, and perhaps to Aquinas' definition of movement as…
…Returning to one's abuser can be dangerous. Recent Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics disclose that 8.8 percent of all
…statements. Several of those statements were shown to him; but one dated July 9, 1958, in which Boblit admitted the actual homicide, was withheld by the prosecution and did not come to petitioner's notice until after he had been tried, convicted, and sentenced, and after his conviction had been affirmed. Petitioner…
…defence provocation or mutual combat, making the offence, at most, only manslaughter. The court held that the guilt of malicious homicide was established beyond reasonable doubt, by proof, beyond reasonable doubt, of the fact of voluntary killing, without excuse or justification apparent upon the evidence introduced in behalf…
…different meaning — and harsher consequences — now than in past centuries. See Wechsler & Michael, A Rationale for the Law of Homicide: I, 37 Colum. L. Rev. 701, 741 (1937).[^maj-13] One other aspect of the common-law rule bears emphasis. It forbids the use of deadly force to apprehend a misdemeanant, condemning such…
In a homicide case the prosecutor may offer evidence of the victim's trait of peacefulness to rebut defense evidence that the victim was the first aggressor. The rule permits this rebuttal even though character evidence is generally restricted.
Yes. The Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits sentencing a juvenile offender to life imprisonment without parole for a non-homicide offense because the penalty is cruel and unusual when applied to minors in such cases.
At common law a defendant could be held liable for homicide only if the victim died within one year and one day of the injury. Death after that period barred a homicide charge even if causation was otherwise established.
A statement is admissible under the dying-declaration exception when the declarant, believing death to be imminent, makes the statement about the cause or circumstances of the impending death. The rule applies in homicide prosecutions and civil cases.