Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Is this murder or manslaughter?	graeylin	09/29/03
A figure of authority, whose every word is a law in the country, is walking through the land one day. He spies a man whipping another man, a slave. Slavery is not illegal, and whipping a slave is not illegal. The Authority figure, seeing this, is still enraged that someone would whip another. So, he carefully looks around to see if anyone else is watching, and then kills the "owner" of the slave, and hides the body. Is this manslaughter, or murder? I say murder: The authority figure could have simply spoken up, and said stop. His word was law, and the owner would have likely stopped his actions. The authority figure could have cried for help, but did not. He could have stepped in and stopped the whipping, but did not. He could have struck the man with similar force, acting in self defense for the slave. He did none of those things. Instead, he looked around and decided to attack the other man without warning. He attacked with far more force than necessary, in fact, using deadly force. Murder or manslaughter?
Answered By		Answered On
LifeProfessor		10/08/03
Murder happens when someone plans on killing someone. This guy killed the man beating the slave. Therefore, he murdered him. Manslaughter happens when someone kills someone unintentionally. When someone engages in dangerous behavior, such as driving while intoxicated and kills someone. It is called negligent homicide (manslaughter), which means the drunken person's behavior resulted in the death of another. On the other hand, if someone runs out in front of your car to commit suicide and you kill them, it is not a result of your negligence. Therefore, you did not commit murder or manslaughter, the person running in front of your car committed the act of murder, albeit, suicide.

Additional Options and ratings are only visible when you login!