Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. At common law, malice aforethought can manifest by acting with one or more of the 4 following mental states: intent to kill, intent to cause grave bodily harm, reckless indifference to human life, or intent to commit a felony. If a person, acting under any one of those mental states, causes the death of another person, they are guilty of murder.
Malice Aforethought
Intent
Here, the facts do not directly mention defendant's (D) mental state. However, deliberately decapitating an infant clearly indicates that D acted with intent to kill, or intent to commit great bodily harm.
Recklessness
Even if she somehow did not intend for her actions to cause death or serious bodily injury, her conduct shows reckless indifference to human life: a reasonable person should know that decapitating an infant, and eating its brain, creates a substantial risk of death, and she acted in a manner that created such a risk.
If it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that D acted with any one of those mental states, she will be guilty of murder.
Felony Murder
Under the felony murder rule, any death which occurs during and because of the commission of an inherently dangerous felony also constitutes murder. The act of taking a sword to an infant clearly constitutes battery - battery is any intentional harmful physical contact by one person upon another. Battery is also a common-law felony.
However, there are exceptions to the felony murder rule - relevant here is the merger doctrine. Under the merger doctrine, any lesser included offense which accompanies murder cannot serve as the predicate felony under the felony murder rule. In this case, the crime of battery constitutes the exact same conduct which caused the victim's death. Therefore, the felony murder rule does not apply. Furthermore, the crime of battery should merge into the crime of murder, meaning that D cannot be convicted of both (though she could be acquitted of murder, but convicted of any lesser included offense, such as manslaughter or battery).
Accordingly, D will probably be guilty of murder, as it should not be difficult to prove that she acted with intent to kill, intent to cause grave bodily harm, or reckless indifference to human life.
Defenses
D's only feasible defense is insanity. The facts do not indicate that she was acting in self defense (the victim was a baby, after all).
Insanity
There are several legal tests for insanity. The majority of jurisdictions, including California, apply the so-called "M'Naghten test" - under that test, for an insanity defense to succeed, it must be shown that D suffered from a mental disease or defect, and lacked the ability to either appreciate the nature or quality of her actions, or understand the wrongfulness (either legal or moral) of her actions.
Again, no facts directly relate to D's mental state at the time of the killing. None indicate that she suffered a mental disease or defect, or that she was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of her actions, or their wrongfulness. D might argue that the heinousness of the act itself is evidence that she was insane at the time it was committed. However, such defenses usually fail, as they would give the most heinous criminals an opportunity to raise a defense and eliminate or lessen their culpability because of the heinousness of the act.
Many jurisdictions that use the M'Naghten test, which is cognitive in nature, use as an alternative the "irresistible impulse" test, which examines D's capacity for volition, rather than cognition. To satisfy this test it must be shown that, because of a mental disease or defect, D was completely unable to conform her conduct with the law, even if she appreciated that it was wrong.
Again, no facts directly relate to this point.
Conclusion
While the nature of the crime indicates that there is something mentally wrong with D, there are not enough facts to determine if she has a valid insanity defense. Accordingly, she will probably be found guilty of murder by acting with intent to kill, intent to commit grave bodily harm, or reckless indifference to human life.
I'm gonna pass this bitch!
-- Edited by john31584 on Monday 27th of July 2009 06:04:21 PM
-- Edited by john31584 on Monday 27th of July 2009 06:11:12 PM
