On February 14, 2013, South African Olympian, Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The incident took place at their home in South Africa, where Steenkamp was hiding in the bathroom, when three out of the four shots hit her. Pistorius claims that it was an act of self defense, mistaking Steenkamp as an intruder. During his trial, experts questioned the Mental Health of Pistorius. Steenkamp parents added that he had a history of anger problems and breakdowns during the relationship. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison for culpable homicide and is no one house arrest while he awaits his new case. With an appeal made from the prosecutors, a new trial is in process where Pistorius’ conviction of Manslaughter can be …show more content…
Culpable Homicide is the illegal killing of a person with or without an intention to kill. Criminal Homicide is when someone take the life of another, regardless of intent or other details surrounding the incident (Moreland, 125). Homicide is not always charged as a crime. There Justifiable Homicide, this when killings are authorized by the law, like execution. There is also Excusable Homicide, the killing in a case of self defense. Homicide ranges from involuntary manslaughter to first degree murder. Homicide and Murder differ from each other based off the force of the offender.
Murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another (Dictionary). To have thought up or drawn out a plan to kill another human, this is intentional, unlawful is the courts definition of Murder. Premeditated is having the intention to kill someone or inflict very serious
…show more content…
There is no evidence proving that he knew his girlfriend was in the bathroom. Second Degree Murder is the intention to kill with out planning ahead. I believe that was Pistorius goal to kill and he should be charged with Second Degree Murder (Moreland, 129).
Another plea that Pistorius tried to make was Mental Insanity. Mental Insanity means that the defendant was not in the right state of mind when the crime occurred and should not be held morally responsible for there action and behavior. Although this would not get the defendant out of jail, as they would be sent to a mental health institution. They also can be in the mental institution longer rather then if you were found guilty and sentenced to a prison term. In addition, to get out of a mental institution the defendant must prove to a judge that they are no longer legally insane (Hodgins,
Causation is the cause of death, and in criminal law it is the connecting of conduct and physiological behaviour with a resulting effect, typically a serious injury or death. The analysis of the actus rea and mens read of the accused will assist the investigators in pinpointing the causation of the murder. In criminal law it is absolutely necessary to prove causation in order to convict an individual for first degree murder.
So as you can see, sometimes the Insanity plea was put to good use and
On November 12, 2004, a jury found Scott Peterson guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Laci Peterson and of second-degree murder in the death of their unborn child. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection the following year, and is currently on death row in San Quentin State
Murder is still a crime, and there is a fine line between murder and a
Murder is murder, or taking the life of another person. Repeatedly taking the life of other people is killing in a serial way. Serial killers are those individuals who repeatedly murder other people. There have been thousands of nameless serial killers, but none more famous than Jack the Ripper. The 1888 maliciousness of Jack the Ripper became one of the very first investigated, and most widely studied, serial murder cases, that established the protocols that are still used today to investigate these heinous crimes. The name Jack the Ripper has instilled fear in the public since 1888, and is a name that is synonymous with serial killing. Jack the Ripper set the bar by which all other serial killers are judged, studied, and
The insanity defense is not widely used, and is raised in only about 1% of all criminal cases. Defendants found "not guilty by reason of insanity" are rarely set free, being instead committed to a mental hospital until confinement is no longer deemed necessary.
If a mass killer’s murders are committed in more than just a single location, then they are part of a continuous action (Murder 1). Their victims are usually chosen at random, not just killed at first sight. Their targets may also come in specific groups. More than occasionally, a mass murderer will take his own life after his urge to kill is over. This is possibly because authorities recognize the killer is unstable and are likely to shoot the killer in order to protect themselves. A typical mass murderer uses a semi-automatic weapon and plots his murders to be made in a school, university, or restaurant (murder 1).
Two dead bodies and one very guilty man, but no jail time. The OJ Simpson murder trial in 94’ may have been the biggest happening in that year. The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death in Nicole’s home in LA. OJ was boarding a flight when the murders went public; he quickly became the first suspect in the case. The trial went on and the jury found him not guilty of the murders, despite overwhelming evidence showing his connection to the murder. In the controversial case of the killings of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, the innocent ruling incorrectly acquitted O.J. Simpson; OJ killed both of them because he possessed a motive, attempted to escape and cover up the crime,
To be found guilty of first degree murder, it must be proven that killed someone with malice aforethought, meaning it was planned, premeditated. First degree murder is to kill malevolence, to kill either intentionally and deliberately or recklessly with the utmost disregard for human life. Premeditation may be fashioned immediately and does not require a lengthy period of contemplation. The death penalty is recognized in Thirty-eight states. Capital first-degree murder or aggravated first-degree murder is categorized in killings viewed as deserving of capital punishment. Life imprisonment or death penalty is the punishment resulted in a conviction. States who do not recognized the death penalty, aggravated murder carries life imprisonment. When aggravated or capital murder is committed in a heinous or monstrous fashion, it is considered homicide (Lippman, 2006).
Consequently, over time since the first clearly reported use of the insanity defense in 1843 there have been many changes made to try and lessen a defendant's chances of using it successfully when they truly shouldn't have. The plea of insanity is entered into by the perpetrator of a crime or their attorney at the time of trial, and the court makes a decision as to if they should continue with the trial or hold a separate trial to consider their sanity.
Most court cases end in one of the following two ways: Guilty or Not Guilty. In addition to these simple verdicts, information is sometimes provided as to why the jury came to its conclusion. Such is the case for Not guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). While the first two scenarios are simple and fair, the last choice has raised more than a few eyebrows over time. Many believe that the Insanity Plea is a simple way to get a high-stakes criminal off the hook, though many would also disagree and say that the Insanity Plea is a justifiable resolution to court cases. To define the actual term, “Insanity Plea”, the authors Zachary Torry and Stephen Billick state that, “The Insanity Defense of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity is the defense used by some mentally disordered defendants who do not have the capacity for understanding right and wrong at the time of their criminal act.” (Torry and Billick)In another article, Neuroscience, Ethics and Legal Responsibility: The Problem of the Insanity Defense, the author Stephen Smith, gives another excellent definition, he says,
...e criminal act of homicide. The process of correctly investigating the homicide that has occurred is becoming more crucial with law enforcement and has impacted them due to correctly identifying the root cause of the crime. The death penalty must always be the last type of sentencing that a court is seeking, but if the crime has enough evidence and information provided than the death penalty must be invoked.
Keyes was never caught for the raping of the teenage girl and therefore he was able to continue committing other crimes. According to a blog called “Acting At Random,” his first murder was in 2001 of an unidentifiable couple. He also started dating a woman whom he had a child with later on and in 2006 committed his second murder claiming two more victims. In 2009 he needed to support his criminal activities, thus he began robbery, but still continued to murder by taking the lives of Bill and Lorraine Curriers. On February 1, 2012 Keyes abducted and murdered Samantha Koenig which caught the media’s attention that eventually lands him in prison due to surrounding cameras that caught his car on tape.
The basic definition of the word criminal is someone who commits offending behaviour within society (Harrower, 2001). The crime may range from petty theft to murder.
Murder is considered a serious crime in our country. The loosely defined term of murder implies that a person who kills another human being with intent is known as being the worst kind of violent crime we see in our society. Any unlawful killing requires that a living person be killed and it does not mean that the guilty person feels any hatred or spite in order to plan and execute the act of murder. Moreover, the destructive acts that end peoples lives are classified as homicides which include manslaughter and first and second degree murder. More important, the justice system has put different labels on such crimes, but it also allows room for criminals to get away with murder.