FYLSX Criminal Law: Homicide 5 ā Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the FYLSX/Baby Bar, when analyzing a homicide fact pattern, what is the correct order of analysis?
- Start with manslaughter, then consider murder defenses
- Identify the killing, determine malice, check for mitigating factors, and classify the degree (Correct answer)
- Determine motive first, then classify intent
- Classify the weapon used, then assess the mental state
Correct answer: Identify the killing, determine malice, check for mitigating factors, and classify the degree
Proper homicide analysis proceeds by confirming an unlawful killing, identifying the type of malice or mental state, checking for mitigating factors (heat of passion), and then classifying the degree.
Question 2: A terminally ill patient asks her doctor to administer a lethal dose of medication to end her suffering, and the doctor complies. Under traditional common law homicide rules, the doctor is most likely guilty of:
- No crime because the patient consented
- Voluntary manslaughter due to the patient's request
- Murder, because consent is not a defense to homicide (Correct answer)
- Involuntary manslaughter due to lack of malice
Correct answer: Murder, because consent is not a defense to homicide
At common law, the victim's consent is not a defense to homicide; intentionally administering a lethal dose with knowledge it will cause death constitutes murder.
Question 3: A defendant is convicted of felony murder predicated on robbery. The robbery and murder charges are tried together. Which of the following is most accurate?
- The robbery merges into the murder, so the defendant cannot be punished for both
- The defendant can be convicted and punished separately for both robbery and felony murder (Correct answer)
- The murder conviction requires the robbery conviction to be vacated
- Felony murder and robbery always merge under the Double Jeopardy Clause
Correct answer: The defendant can be convicted and punished separately for both robbery and felony murder
Under the Blockburger test, robbery and felony murder are separate offenses each requiring proof of different elements, so separate convictions and punishments are permissible.
Question 4: Which scenario would most likely defeat a heat of passion defense because the provocation is legally insufficient?
- A wife discovers her husband engaged in adultery and kills him
- A man is struck in the face by another who then draws a gun
- A defendant is told second-hand that someone insulted his honor (Correct answer)
- A defendant witnesses his child being violently assaulted
Correct answer: A defendant is told second-hand that someone insulted his honor
Words aloneāincluding secondhand insults or verbal provocationsāare generally legally insufficient to constitute adequate provocation for heat of passion.
Question 5: Under the Model Penal Code, a person who causes the death of another person 'negligently' is guilty of:
- Murder
- Manslaughter
- Negligent homicide (Correct answer)
- No criminal offense
Correct answer: Negligent homicide
The MPC creates a separate grade of criminal homicideānegligent homicideāfor deaths caused by criminal negligence, which is a lower culpability level than recklessness.
Question 6: A statute defines first-degree murder as 'murder by poison, lying in wait, or any other willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing.' A defendant spontaneously shoots his coworker after a workplace argument. He is most likely guilty of:
- First-degree murder because he used a deadly weapon
- Second-degree murder because premeditation is absent (Correct answer)
- Voluntary manslaughter because the argument constitutes provocation
- Involuntary manslaughter because the shooting was impulsive
Correct answer: Second-degree murder because premeditation is absent
Without evidence of premeditation and deliberation, the spontaneous killing would not qualify as first-degree murder and defaults to second-degree murder.
Question 7: A defendant is driving recklessly and kills a pedestrian. The prosecutor charges felony murder predicated on reckless driving. Under most modern approaches, this charge would likely fail because:
- Reckless driving is a misdemeanor, not a felony
- The death must occur during a violent felony, not a traffic offense
- Reckless driving is not inherently dangerous as an abstract matter (Correct answer)
- Felony murder cannot be based on vehicular offenses under any circumstances
Correct answer: Reckless driving is not inherently dangerous as an abstract matter
Many courts use the abstract-danger test and hold that felony murder cannot be predicated on a felony that is not inherently dangerous in the abstract, such as reckless driving.
FYLSX Criminal Law: Homicide 5
Under the FYLSX/Baby Bar, when analyzing a homicide fact pattern, what is the correct order of analysis?