what is the difference between the degree of murders?

Question

always hear like 1st degree 2nd and so on. how high does it go up to? 4th?

Answer 1

Here's the breakdown:

FIRST DEGREE MURDER = Premeditated murder. That means you knew you wanted to kill someone, you planned it out, and you carried the plan out and killed them.

SECOND DEGREE MURDER = Intentional but not premeditated murder. It means you intended to kill someone but it wasn't necessarily planned. For example, a man who gets in an argument with his wife and grabs his gun and shoots her would be charged with second degree murder.

THIRD DEGREE MURDER = Manslaughter, which is a separate offense in many states. It means you killed someone using some type of method that could kill someone but you didn't intend to kill the person. For example, if you got into a fight with someone outside a bar and beat him up so badly that he died, but you only intended to beat the crap out of him, that's manslaughter. You also have vehicular manslaughter, which is when you get into a car accident and kill somebody (that's usually reserved for people who were driving drunk and killed someone in an accident).

Answer 2

First is premeditated --prosecution must prove mens rea or malice aforethought which proves intent.
Second degree is not premeditated, like a crime of passion, where the person hadn't planned to murder, but did.

Third degree is any other murder including negligent murder, also known as manslaughter.

First degree can also be applied to a non premeditated murder that involves a police officer, a child, a fire fighter, a court room witness, or any other special circumstance.

Also a Felony murder which is a murder that happens, even accidentally, during the commission of a felony (ie armed burglary gone bad) is treated the same as a first degree murder, even without intent to kill.

Answer 3

The primary difference is the possible sentence.

1st is the highest -- the worst kind. Higher numbers are less severe...

The specific definition varies by state/country. For the bar exam, 1st degree murder is premeditated (pre-planned) murder, or murder by means of bomb or ambush or poison, with all others being second degree.

In some states, murder of a witness or police officer is bumped up to first degree. Very few states/countries have third degree murder -- most drop down to manslaughter.

So, the real answer is dependent on where the crimes are being defined (state/country).

Answer 4

It depends on the jurisdiction as to how any degrees there are. Most commonly, there are two. After that it goes into manslaughter and other types of homicide. First degree murder is usually pre-meditated. Second degree is usually a murder that takes place in the commission of another crime or was unintentional in said crime. Of course manslaughter is usually accidental in nature.