Voluntary Manslaughter Lawyer Kansas City, MO

Voluntary Manslaughter in the Missouri Revised Statutes

The Missouri Revised Statutes address both voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. An involuntary offense includes two degrees, with the first-degree offense covering reckless conduct and the second-degree offense covering criminally negligent acts.

A voluntary offense, by contrast, is only a single offense. Voluntary manslaughter occurs in the following two circumstances:

Killing Due to Sudden Passion

Prosecutors could file manslaughter charges when the accused party commits an intentional killing that would constitute second-degree murder. The accused party could assert that they acted under the influence of “sudden passion” arising from an “adequate cause.”

Second-degree murder means that the accused person caused the death either knowingly or with the intent to cause serious physical injury. “Knowingly” means that they were aware that their actions were virtually certain to cause death. “Purposely” means that the person’s objective was to cause a serious physical injury.

This means you could face second-degree murder charges if you deliberately swerved toward someone while driving your car at high speed. The prosecution could argue that it’s reasonable to infer that you either intended to seriously injure the other person or knew that hitting them with your car would kill them.

Second-degree murder becomes manslaughter when you assert sudden passion. You have the burden of proving that you acted under sudden passion, which is done by advancing evidence and arguments to the jury. You must persuade the jury by a preponderance of the evidence. This means that a jury can accept your assertion if the evidence makes it more likely than not that you acted with sudden passion.

“Sudden passion” means that you experienced a strong emotional response to provocation by the victim or someone acting with the victim. The passion must arise at the time of the killing. It cannot result from an earlier provocation.

For example, you might claim sudden passion if the victim told you that they molested your child and, in response, you beat them to death. Conversely, sudden passion might not apply if your child told you they were molested, and you killed the molester a week later after buying a gun and stalking them.

“Adequate cause” is an objective standard. It means that the provocation would have reasonably produced powerful emotions in a person of ordinary temperament. Moreover, this passion would be so strong that it would substantially impair an ordinary person’s ability to control their actions.

The classic example of “adequate cause” is finding someone in bed with your spouse. Other causes that may be ruled adequate might include someone exposing themselves to your child or spouse.

In Missouri, words alone are usually not considered to be an adequate cause. Thus, insults and taunts would potentially need to be coupled with a physical act to provide adequate cause.

There is one exception, however, which is due to a shocking discovery. This exception applies when the words themselves were not meant to provoke but rather to convey information, such as an admission of adultery or child molestation.

Assisted Suicide

The second form of this offense occurs when someone knowingly assists another in committing suicide. Missouri outlaws all assisted suicides, whether by a physician or a non-physician.

In an assisted suicide case, prosecutors will question what you knew at the time you provided the assistance and how closely your acts related to the death. For example, a doctor may face charges for prescribing opiates to a terminally ill patient who asked for help committing suicide.

However, you can also imagine scenarios in which material assistance would not contribute to the death. Thus, you may not “knowingly” assist if you repaid a loan to the deceased person and, unbeknownst to you, they used the money to buy a gun.

Similarly, you may not be found to “assist” a suicide if you paid for the hotel room where the person died.

Possible Defenses Against Kansas City, MO, Voluntary Manslaughter Charges

Your lawyer can rely on several criminal defense strategies when defending you. Some possible defenses include the following:

Lack of Intent

Manslaughter requires proof of intent. The prosecution must prove one of the following states of mind:

• You knowingly killed
• You killed with the purpose of causing serious physical injury
• You knowingly assisted suicide

These are fairly high standards that exclude accidents caused by reckless or negligent behavior. One possible defense is to prove that the death was unintentional and, thus, you lacked the intent required by the statute.

For example, the defense could present witnesses who report that a defendant did not throw a brick off a bridge but instead accidentally knocked it off, causing the death of someone passing under the bridge.

However, this defense more commonly occurs when the defendant’s attorney points out that the prosecution has no evidence of intent.

Suppose the prosecution’s theory is that you pushed a victim into traffic. However, the prosecution’s case is based solely on the driver’s testimony that they saw the victim fall into the road. Your lawyer could point out that the prosecution’s case was missing evidence that you deliberately pushed the victim.

Defense of Self or Others

Missouri law gives you the right to use force to stop another person’s imminent use of unlawful force against you or others. You can even use deadly force in the following situations:

• You reasonably believed deadly force was needed to prevent a death, a serious physical injury, or a forcible felony, such as rape
• The person unlawfully entered your residence or vehicle while you were inside
• The person unlawfully entered private property you owned or leased

The adequate cause to reduce a charge to manslaughter often overlaps with the justification for self-defense or defense of others.

For example, suppose you were in a bar when someone racially insulted you and tripped you. You punched them, and a fistfight broke out. The other person pulled out a knife. You disarmed and stabbed them.

In this example, the insult and tripping may have been “adequate cause” to trigger “sudden passion.” When the other person pulled the knife, you might have been justified in using deadly force.

Punishment Upon Conviction of Voluntary Manslaughter in Kansas City, MO

Voluntary manslaughter is punished as a Class B felony, subject to a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison. However, manslaughter is not classified as a “dangerous felony” under Missouri law. Thus, the amount of time the defendant will serve depends on their criminal record as follows: