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In the case, Casey had been convicted of first-degree murder of her daughter but the court sitting in Orlando found out that she was not guilty of murder. She was found guilty of trying to lie to the law enforcement officers. In my view, the court reached a good verdict not to find her guilty of murder. This is because there was reasonable doubt that she committed the murder as the case was presented by the defense. Her daughter might have been swimming in the pool where she drowned. There was no direct evidence to show Casey’s guilt and still there was no evidence brought forward to show that the murder was not an accident. This was a circumstantial case, and it depended largely on the emotional appeal, which brought the jury away from convicting Casey of first-degree murder. There was no physical evidence and thus the decision was right.
The Law of Manslaughter
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without intending to do so, without planning to kill or killing without having deliberated to do so. The criminal act of manslaughter arises when a person commits the act of homicide but does not necessary afford his liability for murder: manslaughter fundamentally involves all illegitimate killings that are not murder. The crime is less serious than murder although it is not an excusable means of killing. Under the common law and current statutes, manslaughter is broken down into two classes and then further sub-classed. These classes are used as a suitable label to explain unlawful killings, which are not accommodated by the law. The two classes of manslaughter are the voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.
Involuntary manslaughter is further sub-classed into constructive and gross negligence manslaughter. Constructive manslaughter occurs when death occurs because of high degree of recklessness while unlawful act manslaughter like in the case of Casey happens when the commission of an unlawful act causes death.
There would be no criminal act if the accused had a legitimate excuse or justification for committing the act. This covers Anthony against involuntary manslaughter. Gross negligence manslaughter certainly includes the omission of a particular life saving action so yes, primarily we presume the rules that were to be used against Anthony will be that of an unlawful act which leads to demeanor, but there was little physical evidence against Casey’s, case which rules out any issue of gross negligence of involuntary manslaughter. This leaves the accused with only charges on misleading law enforcement, which is an autonomous charge.
Involuntary manslaughter is in fact, a very uncertain area of law, which has obscurely defined boundaries, which covers the broad and diverse middle ground between accidental death and murder. Therefore, it is unclear whether we will be capable of clarifying some degree of certainty: if any criminal liability Casey Anthony may be charged with murder or she may not be charged with the murder. It is apparent and obvious that manslaughter offence needs to go on to existing but calls to reform them have been broad and diverse and in great multitude like a crime ought not to be privy to uncertainty’.
Voluntary manslaughter occurs when there is a deliberate killing accompanied by some other factors that tend to mitigate the accused of murder, but does not excuse them of killing. In most cases, it occurs when the defendant is provoked to jump into action and he ends up committing homicide because of anger or range. For a case to qualify for voluntary manslaughter, it must satisfy the following conditions; 1). The person must have been provoked and, as a result, there was fear, 2). The accused must have been provoked, 3). There should be no time between the provocation and taking of action, 4). The accused must not have cooled off in that period.
In conclusion, the punishment for manslaughter is imprisonment. The number of years to be imprisoned depends on the applicable statutes. Generally, the sentence for voluntary manslaughter is harsher than for the involuntary manslaughter.
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