Proving premeditation in a murder trial?

Question

Does the whole murder need to be planned out days or weeks before to constitute premeditation or can premeditation happen, say, 5 or 10 minutes before the murder?

And if it was premeditated 5 minutes before the murder, how likely would it be for the jury to return a 2nd degree or manslaughter verdict?

Answer 1

According to my limited knowledge, pre-meditation can be within seconds of the attack......I think intent plays into it.

Answer 2

Taking a bullet it placing it in a gun and killing a person is enough to be called premeditation. So is making sure a knife is on you and then killing someone. Anything that goes out of the ordinary for the day that constitutes to the murder can and usually is considered premeditation. Anything that isn't spontaneous in nature. Manslaughter is very unlikely in any murder that shows intent to kill. Just hope you're not thinking of murdering someone cuz if so just asking this questiong shows premeditation. :-\

Answer 3

The only way a murder can be truly not premeditated is if some picked a fight with you, and you killed him as a result. Anything else, the prosecution is going to push first degree.

Answer 4

The objective is to ascertain, as best as one can, the state of mind of the killer at the time of the act itself. What was that individual's intention?

For example, if someone accidentally fatally hits someone running across the highway, it might be considered involuntary manslaughter. If the driver had no intention of harming the individual, then the sentence is adjusted accordingly.

But what if you are out hunting, and you happen to see your lifelong enemy...and you kill him on the spot. What if you wanted to kill him. What then? That is first degree murder.

The law examines and questions the facts about the crime, and, as I said before, the state of mind and the intention of the person committing it.