• calcopiritus@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    Intent is not the difference. The difference is planning.

    I am not a lawyer, but this my understand:

    If you’re enjoying a quiet time in the park and a kid shouts, which disturbs you, so you shoot the kid in the head. You intended to kill the kid. You aimed at his head and shot a deadly weapon.

    However, it was not planned. Your plan was to enjoy a quiet time in the park. You just killed the kid because of a momentary rage. You didn’t even know the kid.

    I believe that would be second degree.

    If you didn’t intend to kill, that would be something else, like gross negligence or whatever. For example running a red light and killing a kid that you didn’t even see because your enormous American car (which you call a truck, but the bed is always empty). That would not be first or second degree murder. In America it may just result in a traffic violation because you ran a red light. Might be a 100$ fine.