Full access allows:
- Solve all tests online without limits;
- Remove all advertisements on website;
- Adding questions to favorite list;
- Save learning progress;
- Save results of practice exams;
- Watching all wrong answered questions.
24. What is the most serious homicide offense of which the man could properly be convicted?
A man hated one of his coworkers. Upon learning that the coworker was at a neighbor's house, the man grabbed his gun and went to the neighbor's house hoping to provoke the coworker into attacking him so that he could then shoot the coworker. After arriving at the house, the man insulted the coworker and bragged that he had had sexual relations with the coworker's wife two weeks earlier. This statement was not true, but it enraged the coworker, who grabbed a knife from the kitchen table and ran toward the man. The man then shot and killed the coworker.
A state statute divides murder into degrees and defines murder in the first degree as murder committed willfully with premeditation and deliberation. The statute defines murder in the second degree as all other murder at common law and defines voluntary manslaughter as at common law.
Comments (0)
There are no comments at the moment. If you found an error or think question is incorrect, tell everyone about it
Only signed in users can write comments
Signin
In this case, the man intentionally provoked the co-worker so that he could shoot him with a gun, which is a deadly weapon. This is enough to satisfy the «willful» requirement of the statute because by shooting his co-worker, the man would know that the victim's life was substantially certain to be taken, regardless of whether he specifically intended to kill the victim. Moreover, the killing cannot be justified as having been in self-defense because the man was the first aggressor. Additionally, he does not meet the exceptions to the first aggressor rule, for withdrawal or a sudden escalation.
B is incorrect. Murder in the second degree is not the most serious homicide offense of which the man could properly be convicted. The man is guilty of first degree murder because, as explained above, he committed the killing willfully with premeditation and deliberation. The killing cannot be justified as having been in self-defense, because the man intentionally provoked the co-worker so that he could shoot him.
C is incorrect. Voluntary manslaughter is not the most serious homicide offense of which the man could properly be convicted because he was not acting in the heat of passion when he killed the co-worker. As stated above, the man is guilty of first degree murder because he committed the killing willfully with premeditation and deliberation, and the killing cannot be justified as having been in self-defense.
D is incorrect. Again, the killing cannot be justified as having been in self-defense because the man intentionally provoked the coworker so that he could shoot him. The man is guilty of first degree murder.