MANSLAUGHTER. The unlawful killing of another without malice, express or implied. It is this absence of malice which distinguishes the act from murder. Not infrequently persons are charged with this crime who are admittedly free front any moral blame. At common law, manslaughter is of two 1:111(1S. l'y :111(1 in voluntary. The former includes eases of inten tional killing. upon sudden heat or passion (Inc to provovation, which palliates the offense; as when the person killed grossly insults Or wrongs t be slayer or rel.+ with him. voluntary manslaughicr occurs when the killing is not intended, but results from the commis shut of an unlawful act which falls helots the grade of felony (q.v.), ?tr front the doing of a lawful act in an unlawful manner. as in cases of culpable negligence (q.v.). A railroad engineer. a trolley-ear motorman. or a horse-car driver, whose negligent misconduct the death of a human being is guilty of inanslattohter. By modern statutes the offense has been extended to every kind of homicide (9.v.) which on the one hand is not murder (q.v.), and ?In the other
is not justifiable or excusable. It has also been divided into degrees—the first degree including eases marked by unusual cruelly, or by unlawful conduct of a grave character. such as a deliberate assault or the use of dangerous weapons. or :01 011Ilktol'illg rIrug. to procure miscarriage; while seeond degree embraces culpable mots and omissions which are less blameworthy. The common law treated manslaughter as a felony, but within Ilse benefit of clergy. Modern statutes in England punish the more serious forms by penal servitude for life, and the lighter forms by imprisonment or 1111P. In the United Slates manslaughter in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment for a term generally varying front five to twenty years; in the second degree, by imprisonment for a shorter term, or by a fine of a limited amount, or by both fine and im prisonment. See CRIMINAL LAW (consult the authorities there cited) ; HOMICIDE; IN1URDER.