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Homicide
Every homicide involves a defendant unlawfully causing the death of another. Thus, cases like killings in time of war or killings in self defense are not homicide -- they are lawful killings. What distingsuishes homicides from one another is the defendant's relative blame in causing the death. When the defendant acts intentionally, we generally (though not always) call the killing murder; when she is careless her killing might be deemed manslaughter; in some cases of accidental killings we leave it to the tort system to determine adequate compensation.
Homicide, then, is an opportunity to reflect on what we have learned of mens rea and to test those ideas in context.
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