Закон в силе - Law Booster I. Дроботенко Ю.Б - 9 стр.

Read the text …                                                                   1. Find English equivalents to the following Russian word and expres-
                                                                                     sions.
L   Felony crimes (Part II)
Some examples of common felonies are murder, grand theft, burglary, rob-               с умыслом, степень тяжести, вменяемость, предумышленное, слу-
bery, kidnapping, and some drug offenses.                                              чайное, опрометчивая небрежность, безопасность, дорожно-
                                                                                       транспортное происшествие, самозащита, смягчающее, обычна не-
Charged with murder                                                                    брежность, в порыве ярости, при сложившихся обстоятельствах
        The U.S. Code defines murder as "the unlawful killing of a human be-
ing with malice aforethought." This Code separates murder into two catego-        2. According to the text, complete the following table.
ries: murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree. Murder
may be charged as the lesser offense of manslaughter.                              Types and          Definition   Background         Possible     Possible
        If charged with murder, the degree of seriousness is dependent upon        subtypes                        for conviction     punishment   defence
the mindset of the person who committed the act resulting in death. Murder         murder
in the first degree includes every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in          1. Murder          …            -the mindset of    …            …
wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated                                         the person
                                                                                   - murder in the                 - malice           …            …
killing. Murder in the first degree also includes killings committed in the
                                                                                     first degree                  - state criminal
perpetration, or the attempted perpetration of any arson, escape, kidnapping,
                                                                                    …                               laws
treason, espionage, sabotage, sexual abuse, burglary, or robbery. All other        - murder in the    …            …                  …            …
murders are considered murder in the second degree. So if the killer lacked          second degree
malice or did not premeditate his act, he is guilty of a lesser degree or may       …
be guilty of manslaughter.
        An accidental killing may be prosecuted as murder if the act causing
death was done with a reckless disregard for the safety of others. A drunk        3. Read, translate and give the definitions to other types of felonies:
driver who causes a traffic accident resulting in death can be prosecuted for
manslaughter.                                                                          grand theft, kidnapping, drug offences, escape, sabotage, sexual abuse,
        Depending on varying state criminal laws, those guilty of murder in            traffic accident,
the first degree may be sentenced to life in prison or death, and those guilty         e.g. escape – it is …
of second degree murder can be imprisoned for any amount of years or life.
Defense to murder                                                                 4. Find in the text the sentences, the schemes of which are given below
        A common defense to murder is self-defense. That is, the defendant           and translate them from English into Russian.
was forced to kill to save his own life. However, most state requires that the         A. … charged with …, … is dependent… committed… resulting in … .
force actually used to kill the other by the defendant was not more then the           B. … includes … committed … treason… .
force reasonably necessary to fend off the actual threat of death. A common            C. … lacked… did not premeditate… is guilty of … may be guilty
mitigating defense to Murder is that the defendant did not act with intent to             of … .
kill. Most often this means that the death was an accident or an act of ordi-          D. … be prosecuted… causing… was done… .
nary carelessness. Another mitigating defense is sometimes called dimin-               E. … is, … was forced to kill to save … .
ished capacity or killing in the heat of passion. This defense often attempts          F. … requires… used to kill… was… to fend off … .
to prove that the defendant acted in the heat of passion such that he could not        G. … mitigating… is … called diminished… killing… .
reasonably control his actions under the circumstances.

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