Negligent homicide is a criminal charge brought against a person who, through
criminal negligence
In criminal law, criminal negligence is a surrogate state of mind required to constitute a ''conventional'' (as opposed to ''strictly liable'') offense. It is not, strictly speaking, a (Law Latin for "guilty mind") because it refers to an o ...
, allows another person to die.
Examples include the crash of
Aeroperu Flight 603 near Lima, Peru. The accident was caused by a piece of duct tape that was left over the
static ports
A pitot-static system is a system of pressure-sensitive instruments that is most often used in aviation to determine an aircraft's airspeed, Mach number, altitude, and altitude trend. A pitot-static system generally consists of a pitot tube, ...
(on the bottom side of the fuselage) after cleaning the aircraft, which led to the crash. An employee had left the tape on and was charged with negligent homicide. Other times, an intentional killing may be negotiated down to the lesser charge as a compromised resolution of a murder case, as might occur in the context of the intentional shooting of an unarmed man after a traffic altercation.
United States
In the United States, all
states define negligent homicide by
statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...
, often defining the offense as
involuntary manslaughter.
Negligent homicide may be a
lesser included offense
In criminal law, a lesser included offense is a crime for which all of the elements necessary to impose liability are also elements found in a more serious crime. It is also used in non-criminal violations of law, such as certain classes of tr ...
to
first and
second degree murder, meaning that all of the elements of negligent homicide are elements of those more serious charges.
In some states, negligent homicide charges are possible following the killing of a person while
driving under the influence
Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...
of drugs or alcohol.
See also
*
Criminally negligent manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less Culpability, culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco ( ...
, which has various titles in different countries
*
Depraved-heart murder
In United States law, depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is a type of murder where an individual acts with a " depraved indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death, despite that individual n ...
References
Homicide
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