Let's say that you come home, and you find someone having sex with your wife. He is not raping her, you can tell that they are engaging in consensual sex. But you still get very angry, and you start attacking the guy. You start punching him in the face, you bash his head into the wall several times, you smash lamps over his head. And he ends up dying.
Will you be charged with murder?
2007-09-23 16:15:15 · 24 answers · asked by introversive_guy 3 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
I don't really watch TV.
2007-09-23 16:19:32 · update #1
I was just asking a hypothetical question, I'm not even married yet.
2007-09-23 16:20:44 · update #2
Beautifully Disigned: I already said it was a hypothetical question. I am not confessing to anything, nor have I ever killed anyone.
Be careful what you say, you wouldn't want to be charged with libel, would you?
2007-09-24 14:55:37 · update #3
Citicop is right. It's murder in the second because it wasn't premeditated. So-yes to your question-but, lesser sentence with possibility of parole if there's no violent or felony priors.
2007-09-23 16:23:07 · answer #1 · answered by David M 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course. You murdered him. (Oh, but then, of course, that might be different if you live in Los Angeles where they don't really abide by the law but have juries that make judgments according to the fame and popularity of the murderer). If you are famous, you might get away with it but, if you are just an ordinary kind of murderer and beat the guy to a pulp and he dies, you might be charged with murder. Don't worry, though. No one enforces the death penalty anymore and you will get three meals a day, possibly conjugal visits with your wife if she is still talking to you, and cable TV. Think about it before you decide this is what you want to do if you are ever faced with this scenario. It might not turn out so well.
2007-09-23 16:26:42 · answer #2 · answered by turkeybrooknj 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it would be considered Manslaughter. Your lawyer would probably plead provocation as a defence because you were provoked by the guy having consensual sex with your wife, it was in the heat of the moment and if successful this defence would reduce a murder charge to manslaughter. But don't go trying this!
2007-09-23 16:22:59 · answer #3 · answered by Kid Chocolate 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You probably wouldn't get charged with murder . . . it depends upon how your state defines murder.
Ultimately, somebody died, at your hands -- your mind set and pre-meditation before you act will determine the crime with which you're charged.
I'd say -- if it was a crime, in the heat of passion . . . you'd be charged with manslaughter . . . because there was no pre-meditation, and murder usually requires that you plan it, or more importantly . . . that you INTEND to kill the person.
If your goal, when you are beating the crap out of the guy isn't to kill him, but to rough him up enough so that he never thinks of having sex with your wife again, you'll be charged with manslaughter (in most states).
You could, potentially, do a plea-bargain for involuntary manslaughter, because it isn't necessarily assumed that when you punch somebody, or smack their face into a wall that they're going to die . . . .
and to the person who said, "Of course, you murdered him" I'll remind you that . . . murder is legally defined term. What you're thinking of is . . . "Of course, you killed him." A killing isn't specific, legally -- it's just when somebody dies at the hands of somebody else . . . a murder is more specific, requiring a particular mind set and certain actions . . . a killing isn't.
2007-09-23 16:28:00 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Are you confessing to a murder?...But yes you are going, I mean you would be charged with murder.
You should lighten up, you asked a question and I answered. Perhaps you should read a criminal law book you would get the answer to your question, minus the opinion of us here. You would also understand that to make a libel statment, one would have to state that you did it. I didnt.
2007-09-24 09:44:49 · answer #5 · answered by Beautifully Disigned 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since you are asking about the charge and not if you will be convicted, then yes you can be charged (as the other answers stated, murder in the 2nd). Most likely, it would be a charge of voluntary manslaughter, since it would have a better chance of sticking.
2007-09-23 16:20:13 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think so.
But why getting only mad at him? What about the wife?
And let us suppose that she lied to him saying that she was single?
What if in the fight you came out second best and killed? Will that be self-defense? Would he be charged with murder?
And suppose you have, in reality, found your wife in bed with another guy and want to share your frustration with us?
Life is cruel.
2007-09-23 16:29:43 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes
2007-09-23 16:18:33 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes. That fits the definition of second degree murder here. Those facts will support ao conviction for that charge.
2007-09-23 16:19:14 · answer #9 · answered by Citicop 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You will be charged with murder -- you will plead either temporary insanity or extreme emotional distress.
The temporary insanity probably won't work.
The extreme emotional distress would only knock your charges down to manslaughter (instead of murder) -- so you start praying for jury nullification.
2007-09-23 16:21:38 · answer #10 · answered by coragryph 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋