MANSLAUGHTER, the killing of a hu man being; in criminal law the second degree of felonious homicide. Murder and manslaughter are distinguished from each other by the intent which causes or accompanies the act. If a homicide be not justifiable nor excusable, and yet be not committed with malice aforethought, it is manslaughter and not murder. It is quite certain that the intent need not be to kill; for while there must be a criminal intent to make a person amenable to law as a criminal, yet if one crime be intended, and in the act of com mitting it another of a higher character be also committed without intent, the criminal is responsible for this higher crime. The general principle laid down in respect to manslaughter is, that not only a positive intention to commit some crime, but mere negligence, may make one guilty. If any one take upon himself an office or duty requiring care or skill, he is liable for the want of either; and if death be the con sequence of his ignorance or carelessness, he is guilty of manslaughter. So if one driving furiously run over and kill a person whom he did not see, or if one in command of a steamer or sailing-vessel by reason of gross negligence run down a boat and some one in it be drowned, this would be manslaughter. So, if any one, whether medical by profession or not, deal with another as a physician, and through gross want of care or skill kill him, or if' any one charged with building a house of any kind construct it so badly that it falls and kills persons within or near it; or if in building he drop a stone upon some one pass ing below and kill him; in all these cases he would be guilty of manslaughter, provided he were grossly negligent in the act causing the death. This is the essential question.
Blackstone defines manslaughter thus: ((Man slaughter is the unlawful killing of another without malice either express or implied; which may be either voluntarily, upon a sudden heat, or involuntarily, but in the commission of some unlawful The judicial treatment of this crime, being regulated by statute, varies in the several States. The element of premeditation is not essential to conviction of this crime. There are cases which the law regards as only manslaughter, without evidence of momentary excitement; partly because the law infers that from such a provocation there must be excitement; and partly, perhaps, because the party killed brought his death upon himself by his outrageous wrong.
Thus, if a husband detects his wife in adultery, and instantly and purposely takes either her life or the adulterer's, it is only manslaughter. Not so, however, if he waits for a subsequent opportunity, for then the first reason wholly fails, and the killing becomes murder.
In New York State four degrees of man slaughter are defined. The first carries a pen alty of not over 20 years' imprisonment, the second degree not over 15 years. The first de gree, briefly stated, consists of killing without the purpose of death, when the deceased was engaged in perpetrating or attempting a crime less than felony, and where such killing would be, at common law, murder. Assisting in self murder is manslaughter in the first degree, as also wilfully killing an unborn quick child by injury to the mother if it would be murder in case the mother died from the injury. The second degree consists in procuring abortion otherwise; killing in the heat of passion without the intent of death, but in a cruel and unusual manner; or killing unnecessarily one attempt ing to commit felony. The third degree is kill ing in heat of passion, without intent of death, but with a dangerous weapon; involuntary kill ing, by procurement or negligence of another. while the person killed is engaged in committing a trespass on property; suffering an animal known to be mischievous to go abroad without or keeping it without care, and thereby causing death ; receiving wilfully or negligently so many persons in a boat or vessel as to came death; racing while in command of a steam boat carrying passengers, bursting the boiler, and so killing; killing by a physician while in a state of intoxication. The fourth degree may be said to include all other modes or forms of manslaughter, known as such at common law, and of a milder kind than the preceding. There is much difference between the States in the penalties prescribed. Some States, as Loui siana, Maine and Maryland, assign "not over 20 years) to both first and second degree man slaughter, thus practically leaving the penalty to the judge's discretion; other States, as New Hampshire and South Carolina, call for snot over 30 years,° while Texas, West Virginia and Delaware place five years as the greatest punish ment. Several States make second degree man slaughter "not over one in prison. See HOMICIDE.