4 ms·

> Accidentally killing someone can still be a crime even if you didn't intend to kill them. Maybe, but the crime wouldn't be first degree murder. Try googling

> Accidentally killing someone can still be a crime even if you didn't intend to kill them. Maybe, but the crime wouldn't be first degree murder. Try googling "mens rea"; e.g.: "A mens rea refers to the state of mind statutorily required in order to convict a particular defendant of a particular crime. See, e.g. Staples v. United States, 511 US 600 (1994). Establishing the mens rea of an offender is usually necessary to prove guilt in a criminal trial. The prosecution typically must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offense with a culpable state of mind." [0] [0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/mens_rea https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/mens_rea

dragonwriter 5y ago
> > Accidentally killing someone can still be a crime even if you didn't intend to kill them. > Maybe, but the crime wouldn't be first degree murder. The felony murder rule disagrees.
- blacksqr 5y ago
  "The felony murder rule is an exception to the normal rules of homicide." https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/felony-murder/ https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/felony-mur...
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > "The felony murder rule is an exception to the normal rules of homicide." Whether or not one accepts that use of “normal”, it remains a rule and the claim that murder without specific intent is categorically not first degree, even in broad general terms is false (even before looking into all the variations in specific statutory schemes in the US, which really frustrate this kind of generalization, which takes common law rules and overgeneralizes the way things that are not part of the common law are mapped on to it.)
    - blacksqr 5y ago
      I was trying to respond to the claim that "intent is not law." Your point is valid but irrelevant. Even if intent to kill is not required in all cases to get a conviction for first degree murder, under the felony murder rule it is still necessary to prove intent to commit the original crime.

dragonwriter 5y ago

> > Accidentally killing someone can still be a crime even if you didn't intend to kill them. > Maybe, but the crime wouldn't be first degree murder. The felony murder rule disagrees.

blacksqr 5y ago
"The felony murder rule is an exception to the normal rules of homicide." https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/felony-murder/ https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/homicide/felony-mur...
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > "The felony murder rule is an exception to the normal rules of homicide." Whether or not one accepts that use of “normal”, it remains a rule and the claim that murder without specific intent is categorically not first degree, even in broad general terms is false (even before looking into all the variations in specific statutory schemes in the US, which really frustrate this kind of generalization, which takes common law rules and overgeneralizes the way things that are not part of the common law are mapped on to it.)
  - blacksqr 5y ago
    I was trying to respond to the claim that "intent is not law." Your point is valid but irrelevant. Even if intent to kill is not required in all cases to get a conviction for first degree murder, under the felony murder rule it is still necessary to prove intent to commit the original crime.