Vehicular homicide is one of the most significant charges of felony traffic violations, as it involves the murder of an individual while operating a vehicle. While state laws vary on how they approach this crime, most often this offense is punishable by the same class penalty even when intent was not a factor. In the following category, we examine the legal definition of vehicular homicide, what factors must be present for an offense of this nature to occur, common penalties, as well as variables that may affect the punishment of a vehicular homicide.
When it comes to vehicular homicide, all classes of said crime are considered felonies from all courts, no matter the jurisdiction. This is due to the simple reason that a murder was committed in the act of operating the said vehicle. With this in mind, there are-in fact-varying degrees of vehicular homicide within the criminal justice system, due to the fact that there are specifics within every incident of vehicular homicide that affects the criminal nature of the offense.
First degree vehicular homicide is the most serious of felony offenses of this class, and are typically categorized as such if the following factors are present in the commission of the crime: if the operator of the vehicle “failed to stop after a collision, drove recklessly, drove under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, met or overtook a school bus, failed to stop for, or otherwise was attempting to flee from a law enforcement officer, and/or had previously been declared a habitual violator”. There is some disparity between classifications of first and second degrees of this offense, but in all states a first degree vehicular homicide is committed when an intent to kill was present. In some states, even if the murder occurred without intent or premeditation-by accident-the charge can still be a first degree felony.
Second degree vehicular homicide (sometimes referred to as negligent homicide or vehicular manslaughter) is the next classification of this crime, and denotes any vehicular murder that occurs as a result of the operation of a vehicle without the intent to kill. Most often these types of crimes occur as a result when another traffic violation is committed, such as running a red light and killing the traffic crossing your path, or failure to yield at a pedestrian crosswalk and killing the pedestrian. It should be noted that in many state jurisdictions, second degree offenses are considered misdemeanors, but still, in others, these same offenses can be considered punishable by felony means according to particular traffic laws.
There are a whole host of variables that may come into play in the charging, processing, and sentencing of a first or second degree vehicle murder. One of the most influential factors in how a crime of this type may be termed and punished, depends upon what state the homicide was committed in. As noted earlier, each state is given liberties as to which offenses of this kind should be classified as felonies or misdemeanors and whether the crime should be punishable at the minimum or maximum of the federal statute. Another vital variable that can affect the sentencing of a crime of this nature is if the operator of the vehicle was intoxicated at the time of the murder. Some states will deem these crimes first degree while others consider this crime while intoxicated will consider them unintentional and second degree offenses. Still other states vary their penalties of prison and/or fines according to how many times the defendant has been charged with a dwi, dui, or owi-heavier according to repeat offenses and less severe for first time offenses.
The penalty for any class of this homicide crime is a bit more complicated than one punishment for a certain type of offense: first degree or second degree felony traffic homicide crimes. This said, a felony conviction for a first degree homicide in this category can land a defendant in jail for life. Conversely, the same defendant could have the homicide charge plead down to a lesser degree-such as a second degree offense, characterized as a misdemeanor. Fines are almost always included with the jail term in a crime of this kind, and can be quite steep in nature; as the restitution for a life taken should of course be high.
How the homicide crime is classified and affected by the variables as discussed above will directly and ultimately influence how a criminal record is characterized. Depending on whether the crime happened in one state or another, if the defendant was intoxicated, if the defendant had intent to kill with their vehicle, if the defendant was a pattern DUI offender, what the specifics of the particular case were, as well as how the court rendering a verdict feels about the nature of the crime; will all affect whether the person you are seeking criminal background on has serious or less severe criminal activity. This is why it is necessary that anyone seeking this type of information on a particular individual investigate all possible factors that could have affected the rendering of the charges and sentencing of the criminal in question.