Re:Kim Wall: Headless body identified as missing journalist
by ZeroGravitas on Wednesday August 23, 2017 @07:38AM
(#15080576)
I think the distinction is that if you plan to kill someone for months, then you wouldn't plan to do so on a submarine, as that would be a hard place to cover up the act.
If however, you're on a submarine and then decide to kill someone in a rage, then it's still murder, but it's not planned far in advance.
Re:Kim Wall: Headless body identified as missing journalist
by pluma on Wednesday August 23, 2017 @08:36AM
(#15080964)
I guess "intentionally killing someone in a rage" didn't come to my mind. I can imagine planning to kill someone and then doing it or unintentionally killing someone in a fight/assault. But knowingly killing someone out of the blue never crossed my mind. Not sure what that says about me, if anything.
Re:Kim Wall: Headless body identified as missing journalist
by danso on Wednesday August 23, 2017 @07:20AM
(#15080466)
For starters, there's such a thing as justified homicide, i.e. Self-defense. Voluntary manslaughter covers the situation you describe, in which a suspect kills someone during a fight but can argue that he did not intend for the fight to become lethal. Such as punching someone who then falls and suffers a fatal head injury.
Getting into a fight and unintentionally/recklessly causing lethal injuries, or unintentionally/recklessly causing a lethal accident to happen wouldn't then normally be called "murder" making the distinction unnecessary?
EDIT: To clarify, I'm not picking on coldtea. This isn't the first time I've seen people be corrected when using "murder" to refer to "first-degree murder".