JOHN T.
FLOYD LAW
FIRM
Federal Criminal Defense
Lawyer
EXPERIENCED FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAWYER
TRIALS, SENTENCINGS, AND APPEALS
SERIOUS FEDERAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE
Phone (713) 224-0101
E-mail jfloyd@JohnTFloyd.com
"Serious Federal Criminal
Defense Throughout Texas
"
Murder
Federal Law:
(a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.
Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful,
deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration
of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason,
espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, burglary, or
robbery; or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously
to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder
in the first degree. Any other murder is murder in the second degree.
(b) Within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United
States,
Whoever is guilty of murder in the first degree shall be punished by death
or by imprisonment for life;
Whoever is guilty of murder in the second degree, shall be imprisoned for any
term of years or for life.
State Law:
(a) In this section:
(1) "Adequate cause" means cause that would commonly produce a degree of anger, rage, resentment, or terror in a person of ordinary temper, sufficient to render the mind incapable of cool reflection. (2) "Sudden passion" means passion directly caused by and arising out of provocation by the individual killed or another acting with the person killed which passion arises at the time of the offense and is not solely the result of former provocation.
(b) A person commits an offense if he: (1) intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual; (2) intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual; or (3) commits or attempts to commit a felony, other than manslaughter, and in the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt, or in immediate flight from the commission or attempt, he commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual.
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), an offense under this section is
a felony of the first degree.
(d) At the punishment stage of a trial, the defendant may raise the issue as
to whether he caused the death under the immediate influence of sudden passion
arising from an adequate cause. If the defendant proves the issue in the affirmative
by a preponderance of the evidence, the offense is a felony of the second degree.
Capital Murder
(a) A person commits an offense if the person commits murder as defined under
Section 19.02(b)(1) and: (1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman
who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person
knows is a peace officer or fireman; (2) the person intentionally commits
the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping,
burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation,
or terroristic threat under Section 22.07(a)(1), (3), (4), (5), or (6); (3)
the person commits the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration
or employs another to commit the murder for remuneration or the promise of
remuneration; (4) the person commits the murder while escaping or attempting
to escape from a penal institution; (5) the person, while incarcerated in
a penal institution, murders another: (A) who is employed in the operation
of the penal institution; or (B) with the intent to establish, maintain,
or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
(6) the person: (A) while incarcerated for an offense under this section or Section 19.02, murders another; or (B) while serving a sentence of life imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section 20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;
(7) the person murders more than one person: (A) during the same criminal transaction; or (B) during different criminal transactions but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct; or
(8) the person murders an individual under six years of age.
(b) An offense under this section is a capital felony.
(c) If the jury or, when authorized by law, the judge does not find beyond
a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of an offense under this
section, he may be convicted of murder or of any other lesser included offense.
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