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Casebook Read Credits
Criminal Law
Section 4 . 2 . 1
27 minutes

First v. Second Degree Murder

Sam Kamin,
Dana Lindenberg

The Pennsylvania legislature divided murder into degrees in 1794 in order to limit the number of defendants who would be liable for the death penalty; only those convicted of first degree murder could be put to death. The line drawn then is one that persists in many jurisdictions to this day -- first degree murders require premeditation and deliberation. In this section we discuss both the meaning of premeditation and whether it (or something else) is a valid way of distinguishing the worst of the worst killers.

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