Criminal Law Essay on Homicide

The legitimacy of the use of capital punishment has been tarnished by its widespread misuse , which has clouded our judgment regarding the justifiability of the death penalty as a punitive measure. However, the problems with capital punishment, such as the “potential error, irreversibility, arbitrariness and racial skew" , are not a basis for its abolition, as the world of homicide suffer from these problems more acutely. To tackle this question, one must disregard the currently blemished universal status quo and purely assess the advantages and disadvantages of the death penalty as a punitive measure. Through unprejudiced examination of the death penalty and its consequential impacts, it is evident that it is a punishment that effectively serves its retributive, denunciatory, deterrent, and incapacitative goals.

As far back as one can look into human civilization, justice for a murder victim has always been by taking the life of the killer. In today’s society capital punishment is needed to defend it from further harm, bring justice and/or vengeance to the victims of the loved ones, and encourage psychological deterrence. As of today, there are thirty-two states which offer the only just punishment for a crime without parallel and eighteen states having abolished the death penalty.

Rule: Omission to act (or reneging on a duty to act) or acting as an accomplice to the action of another all of these are other forms of homicide, such as when the failure to engage in an activity (such as not preventing someone from drunk driving) or facilitating a crime results in a murder.

Correspondingly, in the published book “Deterrence and the Death Penalty”, the committee on deterrence and the death penalty presents research organized on the effects of homicide rates due to the death penalty. The author's research specifies that capital punishment neither increases, deters or has any effect on the numeral rates of homicide. This is important due to the fact that even 30 years

305). I do not like this terminology as there are many examples for one to use excusable homicide. One could look at the Florida statue for excusable homicide which states: “Homicide is excusable when committed by accident and misfortune in doing any lawful act by lawful means with usual ordinary caution, and without any unlawful intent, or by accident and misfortune in the heat of passion, upon any sudden and sufficient provocation, or upon a sudden combat, without any dangerous weapon being used and not done in a cruel or unusual manner (Patterson, 2014, p. 270).Take, for example the men and women in our armed forces. They are flown to a different part of the world where there is

In the case discussing Jim Aikens when discussing the charges he should face in regards to the mailman he could be charged with voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter is commonly defined as an intentional killing in which the offender had no prior intent to kill. The situations leading to the killing must be one that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed; otherwise, the killing may be charged as a first-degree or second-degree murder. On the spectrum of homicides, this offense lies somewhere in between the killing of another with malice aforethought such as murder and the excusable, justified, or privileged taking of life that does not constitute a crime, such as some instances of self-defense.

The accidental killing are also known as “manslaughter”. “Involuntary manslaughter usually refers to an unintentional killing that results from recklessness or criminal negligence, or from an unlawful act that is a misdemeanor or low-level felony. The usual distinction from voluntary manslaughter is that involuntary manslaughter is a crime in which the victim's death is unintended.” (“Involuntary Manslaughter Overview.” Findlaw, criminal.findlaw.com/) Many people also go to prison for manslaughter but it gets treated like a murder case in some cases. Depending on the case, and how hard it is pressed depends on how hard the try it. There are two types of manslaughter, involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary is when one has the intent to do it. Involuntary is completely on accident. “As an illustration, consider the following scenario. Dan comes home to find his wife in bed with another man having an affair.He is upset and heads uptown to the local bar and drinks one too many drinks. After a few drinks, Dan jumps into his car and begins to speed fast down the street. If Dan had killed the man who his wife was sleeping with then he could be charged with voluntary manslaughter. If Dan were to accidentally hit and kill a pedestrian or crash into someone causing an accident while driving recklessly and intoxicated, he could be charged with involuntary manslaughter.” (“Involuntary Manslaughter Overview.” Findlaw,

Homicide is the second leading cause of death for 10 to 24 year olds. Out of this number nearly 85% of these crimes are committed with a gun.

In the UCR website it has different statistics that a general public can search and have a better understanding about what is actually the amount of people that have been homicide in different years. This website is really important to have access to because they have different types of charts that anyone can have a better understanding about

The US criminal law provides for a difference between the two crimes of murder and manslaughter. The law describes manslaughter as the killing of a person without any malicious intent (Manslaughter Law, n.d.). As per the US common law, murder was construed to mean killing intentionally with malice aforethought or just killing unlawfully (Homicide: Murder and Manslaughter | Nolo.com, n.d.). Manslaughter may be voluntary or involuntary. Involuntary manslaughter involves committing an act that does not add up to a felony, acting lawlessly or without due circumspection or caution or a death-causing act. On the other hand, voluntary manslaughter results from an in-the-heat-of-the-moment act. This paper is an analytical discussion of Oscar Pistorius’ crime.

Homicide is the act when a person is killing other people. Homicide has been studied from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. Biological, psychological, and sociological theories have been described to determine the etiology and epidemiology of violence and homicide. (Miethe & Regoeczi, 2004).

Last but not least, from a sociologic perspective, capital punishment does not work as intended, to deter crime rate, rather, it might brutalize individuals, at the same time does nothing good to the victim’s family other than brutal vengeance. The origin of death penalty is served as a vehicle to put a warning for those potential future criminals that such kind of behavior will lead to death. However, so far, no clear evidence can be seen that capital punishment, as a mechanism of deterrent, actually cut down the local crime rate. Ironically, a reversal trend was found by Death Penalty Information Center (2010) in the USA that the death penalty leads to an increase in local murder rate. To die might be too easy for the mindless murderers. Also, for the relatives or friends of criminals put into death through capital punishment, they are more likely to be

Society today is comprised of many different races, ethnicities and minds that think differently and similarly on various topics. The interpretation of homicide is a topic that may be considered to be a universally accepted social more. A common misconception of homicide is that it is used similarly to murder but homicide is general in scope than murder. Murder is a form of homicide that constitutes a criminal act. There are also other forms of homicide that do not comprise of criminal acts. Homicides of this nature are regarded as justifiable or excusable. An example of a justifiable homicide is when an individual is in peril they may out of self-defence

Death penalty is an ancient punishment since time immemorial. It has been used as a way of resolving blood feds and it is more of a thing of the past. The modern contemporary society must adapt a more human procedure to punish those accused of doing wrong. However, it is important to note that there are a minimum number of offenses that an

Capital punishment is beneficial to the community. It provides the society with a sense of security. The death penalty contains a positive influence on the future. A heavily debated topic is, “Does capital punishment deter people more than a life sentence to prison?” An explanation on why will be covered later. An issues many people have with capital punishment, is when it is just or not just. This is a topic many stray away from, because it is difficult to decide. Finding the right consequence for an action is difficult. While this paper is for the use of capital punishment, it is clearly not needed for every crime, or even every murder. Overusing capital punishment, such as using it for every murder, will negatively impact the country, and not using it has the same effect.