Degrees of Murder

This is mostly intended to pull together the definitions for my own edification.

Murder is the intentional killing of someone.  Intentional-ness is defined by statute.  Killing someone is not necessarily a crime unless it is defined that way by statute.  If you kill someone in self defense or defense of others, it probably not a crime.   Feticide (abortion) is not murder unless specifically defined to be by statute.

First degree murder is killing someone with "malice aforethought".   The killer intends for their victim to be dead and had enough time to consider the ramifications of what they were doing.  If the killing took place during the commission of another felony, it is sometimes considered first degree, although under some circumstances it's voluntary manslaughter.
 
Second degree murder is killing someone in the heat of action, without forethought.  For example a bar room brawl.  The killer may have meant to kill the victim at that moment, but had they had a chance to consider they would probably not have done it.

Voluntary manslaughter is mainly reserved for crimes of passion and for unplanned murders committed during another felony.  It used to be second degree murder but in recent years a distinction has been made.  The standard example is discovering your spouse with another lover and killing them on the spot. 

Killing someone (usually second degree murder but also manslaughter) with depraved indifference is acting in a way that is the killer knows is likely to bring about death, but not specifically intending to kill the person.


Third degree murder is only defined by a few states: MN, PA and FL.  It is basically the same thing as murder with depraved indifference.

Involuntary Manslaughter is the accidental killing of someone while acting in a reckless but not felonious way.  There is no intent or malice, either aforethought or otherwise.  Negligent homicide is essentially the same thing.


It's pretty clear that third degree murder is actually the correct charge for at least some of what happened to George Floyd.   I suspect a lot of the outrage is that most states don't define the crime and people don't understand what it is.  More seriously though, bystanders were yelling at Mr. Chauvin that he was killing him, yet he continued to compress Mr. Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes, while he was handcuffed, including a few minutes after he'd passed out from asphyxiation.  I think it became first degree murder somewhere around 3 minutes into this.  I've watched quite a few videos, including one that showed the police arrival at the scene.  Mr. Floyd never did anything in any way violent or threatening, although he was clearly upset at being arrested, which is pretty understandable.  He may have said something threatening and he was a very big, strong guy, so there might be some possible justification in acting defensively, but once he was handcuffed and on the ground, the threat was over, especially since there were 3 other cops on the scene. Ten seconds of knee on neck would have been ample, even had Mr. Floyd been acting violently, which he wasn't.