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Crminally Negligent homicide
Written by Administrator Friday, 15 August 2008 16:34 |
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Crminally Negligent Homicide
Criminally negligent homicide, also called involuntary manslaughter in the United States, is when someone, without intent, allows someone who is in their care or presence to intentionally die due to recklessness or criminal negligence. The offense of criminally negligent homicide mostly concerns itself with the death of small children and infants, the elderly, and the handicapped.
Recklessness is defined as knowingly disregarding the dangers in a particular situation. An example of this would be someone throwing a brick off of a bridge into the traffic below. While there is no intent to kill a death that results would not be considered murder. The conduct in this example while reckless is sometimes used interchangeable with criminal negligent, which may allow for the prosecution to charge the person with involuntary manslaughter since the person was aware of the risk of injury or death to others yet willfully disregarded it.
For anyone to be found guilty of criminally negligent homicide the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of two elements; (1) that it was the defendant’s conduct that resulted in the death of the alleged; and (2) that the defendant acted with criminal negligence.
The requirement of criminal negligence can also be established if is has been shown that the defendant acted knowingly, recklessly, and intentionally. Intentionally means that the person has acted with intention and that it was a conscious desire or objective to cause death. Knowingly means that the person is aware of his/her conduct yet continues on that path that causes the death of the victim. Recklessly means that the person is aware yet acts recklessly and consciously disregards an unjustifiable risk that the victim will be killed.
Sentencing for criminally negligent homicide varies from state to state and in most instances carries a less severe penalty than murder. There have been some instances of criminally negligent homicide are not considered to be felonies, but misdemeanors. A criminally negligent homicide conviction carries both jail time and a fine.
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 05 September 2008 10:47 ) | |
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