Difference between murder and non-negligent manslaughter

[nclib]

I can't find a distinction between murder and non-negligent manslaughter; they're usually lumped together.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Murder usually requires being premeditated.

[bedstuy]

The basic idea is that manslaughter requires no malice aforethought and a provocation that would lead a reasonable person to become enraged with no cooling off period before the killing. 

The classic example is if you come home to see your wife in bed with a stranger and you immediately kill him. 

[Person Man]

I'm probably wrong on this and I don't consider myself an expect on it and probably never was so don't take my word for it but..

It really depends on whether your state is common law or MPC but in general, for each level of culpability (with willful and intentionally being discerned by "malice aforethought" where evidence of whether there was a "cooling down" time after a big incident that could cause someone to kill someone has transpired), there is a different degree of homicide

Generally speaking,

Where there is "willful" culpability, it is where you had malice aforethought. It was your original intention to kill someone. This is your 1st degree-type situation.

"intentional" culpability simply means that you meant to do something that you knew would kill or seriously hurt someone even if it wasn't your goal to kill someone. An example of this would be if you shot a gun into a crowded place and didn't aim for anyone in particular a yet someone died. This is your general 2nd degree murder.

Between "intentional" and "reckless" is where a lot of jurisdictions draw the line between murder and manslaughter. This is called the depravity/depraved heart threshold. Many people say its when you did something and knew someone probably was going to die if you did it.

"reckless" might be your "non-negligent manslaughter". Its when someone's aware of a risk they could be to someone's life but doesn't actually intend on hurting some. Perfect example of this is DUI manslaughter.

"negligent" is where someone takes a risk but doesn't know about it, but should have been aware of it. An example could be a car accident where someone runs another person over at 60 mph when they were in an ADHD stupor which caused them to slip on black ice. They were supposed to be aware of the situation, act in a way to prevent other people from being harmed and weren't aware of what to do and didn't do it because they weren't aware.

There's also something called strict liability where simply not being in compliance is enough for liability. For example, someone gets charged with a misdemeanor when someone dies at their factory because a railing wasn't up to code. 

That's my $.02.