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Vehicular homicide (also known as vehicular manslaughter) in most states in the United States, is a crime. In general, it involves death that results from the negligent operation of a vehicle, or more so a result from driving whilst committing an unlawful act that does not amount to a felony. In the Model Penal Code there is no separate category of vehicular homicide, and vehicular homicides that involve negligence. Both are included in the overall category of negligent homicide. It can be compared to the offence of dangerous driving causing death in other countries.
All states except Alaska, Montana, and Arizona have vehicular homicide statutes. The laws have the effect of making a vehicle a potentially deadly weapon, to allow for easier conviction and more severe penalties. In states without such statutes, defendants can still be charged with manslaughter or murder in some situations.
The victim may be either a person not in the car with the offending motorist, such as a pedestrian, cyclist, another motorist, or a passenger in the vehicle with the offender.
There are proposals in other countries to adopt the single nomenclature of "vehicular homicide" as it is used in the United States.
Sentencing
A study by professors at Dartmouth College and Harvard University found that those convicted of vehicular homicide are given, on average, shorter sentences than those found guilty of other types of homicide. The study found that the gender of the offender does not statistically affect the length of the sentence, but the race does. The identity of the victim is a more important predictor of sentencing length, with longer sentences given to offenders in cases where the victim was female and/or had no violent criminal record.
Some states, such as Minnesota, have statutes allowing for a charge of a vehicular homicide if an unborn child is killed or injured by a motorist.
Vehicular homicide in U.S. state jurisdictions
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
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- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
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- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
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- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
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In other countries
In the United Kingdom, there is no offence of "vehicular homicide". The offences are "causing death by dangerous driving" and "causing death by careless driving whilst unfit through alcohol/over prescribed limit", under the Road Traffic Act 1988. This act removed the offence of "reckless driving" as the concept of recklessness in law requires a mens rea that was often difficult to prove in court. Additional offences connected to fatal road collisions were enacted in the Road Safety Act 2006 but have yet to be brought into force. Legal reformists have pressed for the adoption of a categorization more akin to that of the United States. Jeremy Clarkson, an advocate of a vehicular homicide offence, opines that whilst people's perceptions are that death resulting from a motor vehicle is in a different "family" to other killings, "in terms of fault there can be little distinction between those who kill through the dangerous operation of their cars and those who kill with machines, trains, etc.".
Famous people convicted
- Craig MacTavish, former NHL Hockey player
- Dany Heatley, current NHL Hockey player
- Dwayne Goodrich, former Dallas Cowboys football player
- Charles E. Smith, basketball player for Georgetown University and Boston Celtics
- Lane Garrison, television actor in Prison Break
- J.R. Smith, current basketball player for Denver Nuggets
References
- John M. Scheb II and John Malcolm Scheb (2001). An Introduction to the American Legal System. Thomson Delmar Learning. p. 120. ISBN 0766827593.
- Michael Hooper, M. A. Dupont-Morales, and Judy H. Schmidt (2001). Handbook of Criminal Justice Administration. Marcel Dekker. p. 177. ISBN 0824704185.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "The Facts: Vehicular Homicide and the Impaired Driver". United States Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
- ^ Glaeser, Edward L. and Sacerdote, Bruce (2000). "The Determinants of Punishment: Deterrence, Incapacitation and Vengeance" ( – ). NBER Working Paper. 7676.
{{cite journal}}: External link in|format=|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - James Cleary and Joseph Cox. "A Brief Overview of Minnesota's DWI Laws: Minnesota Statutes Chapter 169A and Related Laws" (PDF). Minnesota Impaired Driving Facts Report. Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
- "c.52 §1". Road Traffic Act 1988. Office of Public Sector Information. 1988.
- C.M.V. Clarkson (2000). "Context and culpability in involuntary manslaughter: Principle or instinct?". In Andrew Ashworth and Barry Mitchell (ed.). Rethinking English Homicide Law. Oxford University Press. pp. 148–150, 164. ISBN 019829915X.
- MacTavish is free New York Times. May 15, 2985. Accessed August 27, 2007.
- Dany Heatley avoids jail time CBC Sports. February 4, 2005. Accessed August 27, 2007.
- Ex-Cowboys player sentenced to prison for hit-and-run deaths - Sports - Brief Article Jet. September 8, 2003. Accessed August 27, 2007.
- Smith, a former Celtic, gets a split verdict, abstract The New York Times. March 13, 1992. Accessed August 27, 2007.
- Fox News August 2, 2007.
External links
- Washington State Vehicular Homicide Law
- California State Vehicular Homicide Law
- California Vehicular Manslaughter vs. Homicide
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