Dictionary Search: "Manslaughter"

Manslaughter

n. The unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought. -manslaughter, vb. Cf. MURDER.

intentional manslaughter. See voluntary manslaughter under MANSLAUGHTER. intentional tort.

See TORT.

involuntary manslaughter

Homicide in which there is no intention to kill or do grievous bodily harm, but that is committed with criminal negligence or during the commission of a crime not included within the felony-murder rule. - Also termed negligent manslaughter. Cf. ACCIDENTAL KILLING. "Involuntary manslaughter is a 'catch-all' concept. It includes all manslaughter not characterized as voluntary." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal law 104 (3d ed. 1982). "The only differences between the legal use and the everyday use of 'voluntary,' 'not voluntary,' and 'involuntary' seem to be (a) a more frequent use of 'involuntary' as a synonym of 'not voluntary' and (b) a technical use of 'involuntary' in the crime of 'involuntary manslaughter,' where it seems to have the meaning of 'unintentional.' Thus, as contrasted with 'voluntary manslaughter,' there is no suggestion that death, as contrasted with harm, was intended or foreseen. Though it is often confined to cases of assault and battery where death results, for example either from the withholding of food or from excessive chastisement of a child, some jurists say that it can be due to any unlawful and dangerous action causing death." Alan R. White, Grounds of Liability 61-62 (1985).

misdemeanor-manslaughter rule.

The doctrine that a death occurring during the commission of a misdemeanor (or sometimes a nondangerous felony) is involuntary manslaughter. Many states and the Model Penal Code have abolished this rule. Cf. FELONY-MURDER RULE "Companion to the felony-murder rule is the so-called misdemeanor-manslaughter rule[:J ... Homicide resulting from the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an unlawful act, less than a dangerous felony, is manslaughter if the unlawful act is malum in se." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 108 (3d ed. 1982).

negligent manslaughter

See involuntary manslaughter under MANSLAUGHTER. negligent misrepresentation See MISREPRESENTATION.

voluntary manslaughter

An act of murder reduced to manslaughter because of extenuating circumstances such as adequate provocation (arousing the "heat of passion") or diminished capacity. - Also termed intentional manslaughter.