Is This A Homicide? Legal Analysis Of Toby's Negligence Leading To Child Death

Topic: Is This a Homicide? 

Toby was fired from his job. Too proud to apply for unemployment benefits, he used his savings to feed his family. When one of his children became ill, Toby did not seek medical attention for the child at a state clinic because he did not want to accept what he regarded as charity. Eventually, weakened by malnutrition, the child died as a result of the illness. 

You are a state prosecutor and have been assigned to prepare a legal memorandum that analyzes and determines the most appropriate homicide charge to file against Toby for the death of his child. Your memorandum must include an explanation of the following homicide offenses as applied to the facts of this case:

1. Murder
2. Involuntary manslaughter
3. Voluntary manslaughter 

Textbook Readings

• Dressler: ch. 31
• Weaver et al.: 8–9

You will compose 2 legal research memoranda composed of at least 2,500 words written in current Bluebook format. The paper must include at least 4 references in addition to the course textbooks and the Bible.

Is this a homicide? Toby was fired from his job. Too proud to apply for unemployment benefits, he used his savings to feed his family. When one of his children became ill, Toby did not seek medical attention for the child at a state clinic because he did not want to accept what he regarded as charity. Eventually, weakened by malnutrition, the child died as a result of the illness.

Short Answer

            Yes. Even though Toby was fired from his work, he proudly applied for his unemployment benefits and used it up in providing food to his family, which is a requirement. However, Toby fails to consider that the same benefits could be used for medical care for the family members. Therefore, when one of his children falls sick, Toby does not make any attempt to look for medical attention for the child at a state clinic, the reason that he gives is that he could not accept the state clinic medical services because he regards them as charity. As a result of his negligence, the child eventually grows weak due to malnutrition and die of the illness.      

Statement of Facts

            Accordingly, based on the presented question, the circumstance indicates that Toby is a negligent parent and does not show care for his family and specifically his ailing child. Consequently, Toby is supposed to be charged with homicide crime under the State’s criminal law. Homicide is a legal term that is used to refer to any killing of a human being by another human being. Homicide by itself may not be necessarily a crime for example if the killing can be justifiable of a suspect by a law enforcement officer or if it happened in self-defense. Nevertheless, there is unlawful homicide which consists of murder as well as manslaughter. Also, homicide consists of lawful killing like killing in self-defense. On the other, homicide also encompasses intentional killing which is legally referred to as murder in addition to negligent killing commonly known as manslaughter. [1] As a result, Toby can be charged with committing a homicide crime.

            Certainly, since homicide is not regarded as a crime, it has to be categorized accordingly to be able to determine the actual crime that is contained in this type of crime. To begin with, it can be classified as murder. In light of this, murder is a crime that entails the killing of an individual by another person. Consequently, the murder can be intentional. While the law on murder differs from one state to another, a majority of the states can distinguish common degrees of murder. Thus, murder comprises of predetermined murder commonly known as first-degree murder, un-predetermined murder, which occurs when the defendant intention is to inflict dangerous bodily harm commonly referred to as second-degree murder and felony murder. Felony murder happens at a time of commissioning dangerous delinquency.

Short Answer

The killing of another person is usually regarded as murder. Thus the precise term for the killing of another individual by another is a homicide. [2] Murder is a type of criminal homicide which has a precise legal meaning. The court defines murder as “the unlawful killing of another person with malice aforethought.”   

First-degree murder: It is deliberate, premediated killing that is mostly regarded as first-degree murder. In this case, the defendant plans for the killing for instance by poisoning. As such, the individual is usually charged with first-degree murder. In the case of the death of Toby’s child, it is not possible to charge him with first-degree murder because he does not plan for the death of the child in any way.

Second-degree murder: This is an intentional killing which is not planned or premeditated. In general, the killing is as a result of dangerous conduct that shows that the offender does not have any concern with regard to human life. [3] Therefore, in connection with the presented question, this case should be regarded as a second-degree murder since Toby does not show any care and concern regarding his ailing child. In fact, Toby sees no sense in taking the child to a state clinic on the claim that he does not like charitable things. Instead of taking the child to the state clinic which could have saved the child from death by providing Toby with the appropriate diet to provide the child, [4] Toby disregards the clinic services. As a result, the child body weakens because of malnutrition and eventually succumb to death. Indeed, this child dies due to Toby’s negligence, which in this case can be termed as negligence.

Felony murder: In this case, the murder is committed when an individual commits a violent crime whereby in the process another individual dies. The offender stand to be charged with murder in spite of the fact that, the person never meant to kill anyone. In the case of Toby, the child dies after suffering from malnutrition. Thus, it is not possible to charge Toby with this type of offense.

Additionally, homicide can be classified as manslaughter. Manslaughter is described as the killing of an individual in an illegal way without malice aforethought. Accordingly, manslaughter falls under various categories such as voluntary and manslaughter involuntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter is described as a premeditated killing that happens with the offender having no aforementioned intent to kill, like a killing that happens in the “heat of passion.” That means that the killing happens as a result of a circumstance which leads to making an individual becoming disturbed emotionally. On the other hand, involuntary manslaughter is regarded as an unintentional homicide that is as a result of reckless or negligent behavior. [5]  

Statement of Facts

Manslaughter is an unintentional killing that comes as a result of recklessness or criminal negligence. Similarly, it can be unlawful conduct which is a crime. Certainly, involuntary manslaughter crime comprises some elements that have to be satisfied to prove that one is guilty of the crime. These elements include:

A killing that happens as a result of the defendant’s conduct

The action can be fundamentally dangerous to another or can be conducted with reckless disregard for human life

The defendant may have known that their behaviour was a threat to the lives of the victim.            

Discussion

Accordingly, by considering all the above mentioned different types of homicide crimes, the most likely crime that Toby should be charged with is that of manslaughter and specifically involuntary manslaughter. The primary reason is that, from Toby’s behavior and jobless state, he is only but negligent about the suffering of his child. Despite the fact that he is much aware that he has no job he does not see any sense in taking the child to a state clinic yet he is not in a position to afford to take the child to a private healthcare facility because of the little money that he has as unemployment benefits are spent on family food. Consequently, Toby’s act of refusing to take the child to the state clinic shows that he is a careless parent and does not also feel for himself for being jobless to accept charitable medical service. In accordance with the presented question regarding the conduct of Toby, he is supposed to be charged are responsible for the death of his child.

Conclusion

            Having analyzed the presented question, Toby stands to be charged with involuntary manslaughter charges. The facts show that Toby acted in recklessness which results in the death of his child.  

Amon, S., H. Putkonen, G. Weizmann-Henelius, P. Fernandez Arias, and C. M. Klier. "Gender differences in legal outcomes of filicide in Austria and Finland." Archives of women's mental health (2018): 1-8.

Crump, David. "Unintentional killings (negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter, depraved-heart and felony murder): should we have different views of felony murder, depending on the governing statute?." Tex. Tech L. Rev. 47 (2014): 113-939.

Garvey, Stephen P. "What's wrong with involuntary manslaughter." Tex. L. Rev. 85 (2008): 333.

Zazula, Bela Attila. "Involuntary Manslaughter in the New Romanian Penal Code." Journal of Legal Studies 16, no. 30 (2015): 31-38.

Garvey, Stephen P. "What's wrong with involuntary manslaughter." Tex. L. Rev. 85 (2008): 333.

Crump, David. "Unintentional killings (negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter, depraved-heart and felony murder): should we have different views of felony murder, depending on the governing statute?." Tex. Tech L. Rev. 47 (2014): 113-939. 

Zazula, Bela Attila. "Involuntary Manslaughter in the New Romanian Penal Code." Journal of Legal Studies 16, no. 30 (2015): 31-38.