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Voluntary Manslaughter, as defined in the book Criminal Law Today says that “Voluntary Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being, without malice, which is done intentionally upon a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion. Also a killing committed without lawful justification, wherein the defendant acted under a sudden and intense passion resulting from adequate provocation” (Schmalleger, 2006, p. 302). In simple words, voluntary manslaughter is when someone kills another person in a sudden passion resulting from a situation that made the killer anger or upset. Also the killing was not planned and was not done because the person was evil or had an evil intent. PROVOCATION OF VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER Provocation are the reasons that a person might have killed someone. These reasons are the reasons that make the difference between voluntary manslaughter and murder. When the crime is voluntary manslaughter provocation is called adequate provocation or reasonable provocation. According to the book, Criminal Law Today “provocation is said to be adequate if it would cause a reasonable person to lose self-control” (Schmalleger, 2006, p. 302). For example, if a man was to come home and find his wife in bed with another man and was to lose control and kill both of them, this would be considered adequate provocation. Also if a person seen the man was about to kill his wife and her lover and tried to stop the killing and was killed himself, this would also be considered voluntary manslaughter. STATE OF MIND CONSIDERING VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER Voluntary Manslaughter is usually committed under one of the states of mind, which are adequate cause and sudden passion. In the book Criminal Law Today, adequate cause is defined as “a cause that would commonly produce a degree of anger, rage, or terror in a person of ordinary temper, sufficient to render the mind of the defendant incapable of objective reflection” (Schmalleger, 2006, p. 303). In other words adequate cause means that if something was to happen to an ordinary person that would make him/her so mad that they couldn’t control their self in their actions. Also the state of mind of sudden passion as defined in the book says that “passion directly caused by and rising out of provocation by the victim or of another acting with the victim. Includes the understanding that the passion arises at the time of the killing and is not solely the result of former provocation” (Schmalleger, 2006, p. 303). When a person is killed from a result of sudden passion it means that the person done something to provoke the killer that caused them to react in the heat of passion, not giving the killer time enough to cool off and think about the situation. CONCLUSION Voluntary manslaughter is a crime, that is committed while the state of mind isn’t at a normal stage. Voluntary manslaughter as defined by FreeAdvice.com states that “Voluntary Manslaughter occurs when a person intentionally kills another person after ‘adequate provocation’; that is, there has been action that was sufficient to incite an ‘ordinary person’ such that s/he loses self control” (FreeAdvice.com, 1995). Also according to the United States Sentencing Commission if a person is found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, the maximum amount of prison time they would get would be 10 years. (United States Sentencing Commission, 1997). LINKS http://www.lectlaw.com/def2/m012.htm http://www.lawteacher.net/CrimePages/Crime14.html http://print.criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/a-z/manslaughter_voluntary.html REFERENCES FreeAdvice.com. (1995). Voluntary Manslaughter - what is it?. Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/violent_crimes/voluntary_manslaughter.htm Schmalleger, Frank. (2006). Criminal law today: an introduction with capstone cases (pp.302-304). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. United States Sentencing Commission. (1997, November 13). 2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter 11/13/97. Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://www.ussc.gov/agendas/11_13_97/PROBAT2.htm AUTHOR Leigh M. Harris UNCP 11-7-05 |
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