Bronx Homicide

Arrested for Homicide in the Bronx?

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Homicide Defined

The New York penal laws define homicide as:

§ 125.00 Homicide defined.

Homicide means conduct which causes the death of a person or an unborn child with which a female has been pregnant for more than twenty-four weeks under circumstances constituting murder, manslaughter in the first degree, manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide, abortion in the first degree or self-abortion in the first degree.

The statutes tend to develop from this foundational definition, and as is the case with every other jurisdiction, there are different forms of homicide. The basic difference between them is the presence of intent in the defendant, and some examples of homicide and murder statutes appear below:

§ 125.27 Murder in the first degree.

A person is guilty of murder in the first degree when:

  1. With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person;

As you see here, intent is required for first-degree murder. For second-degree murder to apply, there needs to be some absence of specific intent and/or some extenuating circumstance, including extreme emotional distress.

Manslaughter Defined

Manslaughter is also a serious crime, and is defined as follows by the statutes:

§ 125.20 Manslaughter in the first degree.

A person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when:

  1. With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person;

There are other situations which constitute first-degree manslaughter, and again, second-degree manslaughter would constitute the absence of some intent to injure or the presence of some extreme circumstance.

The biggest difference between all of these crimes is, of course, the potential remedy. First-degree murder can result in the death penalty, and other forms of murder can result in terms of 25 years to life. Manslaughter is less severe, but can include a sentence of 15 years in prison.

Our skilled attorney also handles other types of criminal charges cases such as:

Because Bronx homicide charges and murder charges are so serious, you need an aggressive New York State Criminal Defense Attorney.  Contact Bronx criminal attorney, Jason A. Steinberger as soon as possible so that we can start working on your case.