Rethinking Criminal Homicide Statutes: Giving Juries More Discretion
12 Pages Posted: 8 May 2014
Date Written: May 6, 2014
Abstract
It may be time to rethink our homicide statutes. Current statutes are prone to distinguish between degrees of murder in an inappropriate way: first-degree murder provisions are too often both over- and under-inclusive; and they fail to give juries sufficient leeway to draw morally appropriate distinctions. I offer here some very tentative thoughts on how murder statutes might be reformulated.
Keywords: criminal law, homicide, juries
JEL Classification: K00, K14, K40, K42
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Dressler, Joshua, Rethinking Criminal Homicide Statutes: Giving Juries More Discretion (May 6, 2014). Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 247, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2433653 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2433653
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