Understanding the Elements and Definition of Manslaughter
The Elements and Definition of Manslaughter
I’m Stuart Ericson, an attorney in Wagoner, Oklahoma. We’re talking about manslaughter today. What are the elements of manslaughter? So manslaughter is the death of somebody and the elements are the death of a human caused by the defendant. The death was not excusable or justifiable. The death was inflicted in a cruel and unusual manner. When performing the conduct which caused the death, the defendant was in a heat of passion, or the death was inflicted by means of a dangerous weapon. When performing the conduct would cause death in the heat of passion.
So this is where death happens. The defendant is the one that caused it. There’s no excuse or justifiable reason, no self-defense. There are no other defenses to the killing. In a cruel or unusual manner, most causes of death are going to be in a cruel or unusual manner. When performing the conduct which caused the death, the defendant was in a heat of passion. So heat of passion. Let’s see where that is defined. Let’s see.
Defining Heat of Passion
There are four requirements for the heat of passion. One, adequate provocation like somebody provoked you and it was adequate. Second, a passion or an emotion such as fear, terror, anger, rage, or resentment existed in the defendant. So if somebody provoked it, you legitimately have fear, terror, anger, or one of those listed elements. Third, the homicide occurred while the passion still existed, and before there was a reasonable opportunity for the passion to cool. So you’re provoked into having one of these emotions. There is no time for thought to go, oh wait a minute, I should calm down. You’re still in the heat of passion and the death is caused. And fourth, there was a causal connection between the provocation, the passion, and the homicide. So it all has to be related and probably in some short time frame.
Obviously, if you’re provoked in some way, three days go by and then you go kill somebody and go, yeah, they provoked it three days ago. That’s probably, you’re still probably not going to be in a heat of passion after three days. You have an opportunity to calm yourself. So manslaughter is more of the spur-of-the-moment type of killing. Something happens, you’re provoked, all these emotions, you do it, and you had no time to really think or cool down or something like that.
Consult an Experienced Attorney
Very fact-specific manslaughter cases are very, you would need to know all the facts and have your witnesses really examined on both sides to see what the facts are before ever proceeding to a trial on manslaughter. So if you have any questions about that, every case is different, facts are different, they plug into the law differently, and you would need an experienced attorney to go over that with you. If you have questions about that, reach out to me at wagonerlawyer.com. I’m Stuart Ericson, a criminal defense lawyer in Oklahoma.
