Manslaughter can be defined as: The unlawful killing of another human being without malice aforethought. It can be divided into two catagories:
Voluntary Manslaughter and Involuntary Manslaughter.
1) Voluntary
manslaughter occurs when one person intends to kill another but does so suddenly and as a result of great personal distress. The Wrongdoer must have become very upset before the killing.
2) Involuntary manslaughter occurs when one person, while commiting an unlawful or reckless act, unintenionally kills another.
However, if the reckless act that got the person killed was a
felony, it would be considered murder not manslaughter.
1)
A dad's son was kidnapped and murdered.
The kidnapper was caught and confessed. The dad saw
the kidnapper the next day in an interview and in sudden rage, the dad grabbed a revolver from a nearby officer and killed the kidnapper. The dad was charged with voluntary manslaughter.
2) Two kids were streetracing, one lost control and hit a crowd of spectators. Two of the spectators were killed. The one who lost control was charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Definition and examples from Understanding Business & Personal Law: Eleventh Edition by Gordon W. Brown, J.D. and Paul A. Sukys, J.D. Copyright © 2003 by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
