Unintentional Murder

In the last Section we saw that some accidental killings are categorized as homicide, even though the defendant did not intend to kill or know that her conduct would result in death. We examined the line between those cases best left to the tort system and those accidental killings that ought properly be treated as criminal matters. In this section we examine another line, between those accidental killings properly termed manslaughter and those it is more appropriate to treat as murders.

Recall the statutes that opened this section. Many described murder as a killing done with malice aforethought (without always elaborating on what that means). We've already seen that intent to kill is one way that malice aforethought can be satisfied. In this section, we examine other mental states that will also suffice. We will see in this Section that some accidental killings may also qualify as murder if the defendant's recklessness was so extreme that it is akin to intentional killing.