CRIMINAL LAW

Criminal Law

Criminal Law

Introduction

In this paper, we will focus on the two cases regarding crime. The cases hovering around the wife named Plosh killed her husband for the reason of being having an affair with her friend. In the second scenario of the case, she also killed her friend named Babe, for the reason that the husband was having an affair with her also. As case describes, the murder of Plosh's husband was unintentionally as she was just trying to scare him. While, in the case of Babe, Plosh was directly involved. Here, we will discuss the degree of crime or liability of Plosh in both cases in which she was involved.

Discussion of Law

Both the scenario of the case relates to manslaughter. Though, independent law will be applied in both the scenario. Both will lie under the case of manslaughter. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being that is not murder. This means that the killing lacked the premeditated intent to kill, which is called malice aforethought. There are four types of unlawful killing that are classifies as manslaughter. These include killing in the heat of passion, certain killings committed in the defence of one's person for which self-defence cannot be claimed, killings caused by reckless or grossly negligent conduct and certain killings that arise out of the commission of certain misdemeanours. In addition, manslaughter is divided into voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter mainly covers the first two types of killing, while involuntary manslaughter includes the last two types of homicide.

Provocation can reduce a killing which would otherwise be murder to voluntary manslaughter. To sustain this lesser charge, the defendant must have been so consumed by passion that he or she was unable to reason to the extent needed to form a deliberate purpose to take a life. In addition, the circumstances arousing this passion must be such that a reasonable person would be governed the same way. Determining whether a person killed in the heat of passion is a simple question to answer. However, it is more difficult to ascertain whether the provocation was adequate from the objective standard that the average person approach entails. Two elements must be shown to meet this standard. First, the provocative act must have been sufficient to arouse such passion in the heart of a reasonable person. Second, there must not have been a significant amount of time to create a ...