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No, criminal negligence or even recklessness would be involuntary manslaughter. “Regular”, voluntary, manslaughter requires intent to kill (but differs from mur
by dragonwriter 1y ago
No, criminal negligence or even recklessness would be involuntary manslaughter. “Regular”, voluntary, manslaughter requires intent to kill (but differs from murder in that it does not require malice aforethought). The textbook example is heat-of-passion killing.
- devilbunny 1y agoReally? I thought heat-of-passion killing was indeed murder. Whereas voluntary manslaughter is more like when you punch someone in the face and they crack their head on a curb and die. You intended to hurt them, but you had absolutely no intent to kill. But IANAL, and to the extent I pay attention to the law, that kind of basic criminal law isn't it.
- 0xffff2 1y agoI linked the UCMJ articles in a sibling comment. I think gp's description is correct for the UCMJ. Part of the problem IMO is that there are ~52 definitions of manslaughter/murder in the US (one for every state, civilian federal law and the UCMJ) so that answer is always highly context specific.
- devilbunny 1y agoThanks. I didn't consider UCMJ.
- 0xffff2 1y agoInteresting. I looked up the UCMJ articles for manslaughter and murder, and the language is actually quite plain; reads to me like you are obviously correct that this case would clearly be involuntary manslaughter. In case anyone else is interested: UCMJ Article 119 (Manslaughter): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/919 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/919 UCML Article 118 (Murder): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/918 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/918