Illinois Homicide, Murder and Manslaughter

As part of our service, we provide free information to the public so they can be educated about the legal process. This page provides a general overview of homicide, murder and manslaughter in Illinois. If you have any questions or would like an attorney referral, please contact us.

Homicide is the killing of one person by another. Murder is a form of criminal homicide, where the perpetrator intended to kill the other person, sometimes with premeditation (a plan to kill). Manslaughter is another type of criminal homicide.

Homicides are criminal, excusable, or justifiable. A criminal homicide is unjustifiable, with consequences being severe. An excusable or justifiable homicide is one without criminal intent to kill someone. Examples of excusable or justifiable homicide would be someone killing someone else as a means of self-defense, or defending another person, or law enforcement who kills someone in the line of duty.

Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malice. Malice can be shown in one of four ways: (1) intent to kill, (2) intent to inflict great bodily injury, (3) reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life, or (4) intent to commit a felony. So if you are driving the get away car in a robbery and your partner shoots someone, you can be charged with murder even if you had no idea he had a gun. In Illinois, murder is divided into two degrees: first-degree murder and second-degree murder.

First-degree murder is the killing of an individual without lawful justification, where the person who performs the act causing death either intends and plans to kill or do great bodily harm to the individual or knows that his act creates a strong probability of death or great bodily harm. First-degree murder is planned and deliberated. For example, if someone decides to kill a business rival who is attempting a corporate takeover, gets a gun, waits for the victim in a deserted parking garage, and shoots him, that killing would have all the elements of first-degree murder.

Any death caused in the commission of, or in an attempt to commit, a felony is considered first-degree murder. This is called the felony-murder rule in Illinois. Malice is implied from the intent to commit the underlying felony. For example, during the course of an armed robbery, your gun goes off and kills the clerk. Even though you may not have intended to kill the clerk, you will be charged with first-degree murder in Illinois.

Second-degree murder is similar to first-degree murder, however the killing is not premeditated. In other words, this means intentionally killing someone without planning to do so in advance. So, if a person becomes angry, walks over to a desk where he keeps a legal weapon for defense, takes out the gun and shoots the other, that may be second-degree murder. There was no plan or advance decision to kill, but the act of taking out the gun and shooting was intentional.

Manslaughter is also the unlawful killing of another human being, however unlike murder, it is done without malice. In Illinois, there are two types of manslaughter: voluntary and involuntary.

Voluntary manslaughter is a killing of a human being in which the offender had no prior intent to kill and acted in “the heat of passion”. “Heat of passion” describes an intensely emotional state of mind induced by a type of provocation that would cause a reasonable person to act on impulse or without reflection. Examples of adequate provocation would be exposure to a threat of deadly force or finding your spouse in bed with another.

Finding that a person killed another in the heat of passion will reduce murder to manslaughter under certain circumstances. The accused must be provoked by sudden and intense passion what causes him or her to lose self-control; the circumstances must be such that a reasonable person, faced with the same degree of provocation, would react in a similar manner; and finally, there must not have been an opportunity for the accused to have "cooled off" or regained self-control during the period between the provocation and the killing.

A person who unintentionally kills an individual, without lawful justification, commits involuntary manslaughter if he recklessly performs an action that is likely to cause death or great bodily harm. However, if the reckless action that causes death involves a vehicle, then the crime is reckless homicide.

There are only a handful of criminal attorneys in Illinois who have real experience with defending murder or manslaughter. You should NEVER hire a lawyer who hasn’t been involved in one of these cases before. For a crime like murder it can be very expensive to hire a lawyer because there is so much work that needs to be done to defend someone. Hiring the right attorney could literally be the difference between life and death. If you can’t afford a lawyer with real experience you should just get a public defender. It’s not the best option, but it is better than hiring someone that has no experience or won’t fight for you.

If you or someone you know is facing these charges we would be happy to connect you with a great attorney or just answer any questions that you have. Contact us at any time and we will do what we can for you. All calls are free and confidential.