Wisconsin Murder & Criminal Homicide Laws

Tracey Wood & Associates
Wisconsin Criminal Defense Lawyers

Definition Of Homicide & Murder

Under Wisconsin laws, criminal homicide is defined as the intentional killing of another person or unborn child. First-degree intentional homicide is an intentional homicide of another person or unborn child with an intent to kill that person or another person. Second-degree intentional homicide (previously known as manslaughter) is a lesser homicide charge due to mitigating circumstances. Felony murder is an intentional homicide committed during the commission of a felony.

Wisconsin Criminal Homicide laws

Wisconsin criminal homicide charges include felony murder, intentional homicide, reckless homicide, and negligent homicide.

Murder (Felony Murder) is murder committed during the commission of another felony. Intentional homicide may be charged in the first degree (first degree intentional homicide) or second degree (second degree intentional homicide). Mitigating circumstances can reduce first degree intentional homicide to second degree intentional homicide or preclude prosecution (no crime). Reckless homicide may be charged when a homicide is committed with recklessness or the use of a deadly weapon; a vehicular homicide is a homicide by use of an automobile, truck, or any motorized vehicle. Negligent control of a firearm or explosive, or of a vicious animal that results in causing a death is criminal homicide.

Wisconsin law does not include statutes for manslaughter, unintentional homicide, or accidental homicide.

Felony Murder law

Felony murder is homicide committed during the commission of another crime. Felony murder is a Class A Felony. [More at felony murder] The governing legal doctrine is called the Felony Murder Rule.

Intentional Homicide laws

Under Wisconsin law, an intentional homicide is the taking of another person's life with an intent to kill or to do seriously bodily injury. [More at intentional homicide] Premeditated murder is an intentional homicide defined as taking the life of another with malice and aforethought. Malice is a premeditation of the murder, a planning of the crime, or even thinking about committing murder. Aforethought is deliberation upon that act, a second guessing, a second thought, or a 'turning' of the thought over in one's mind. Premeditated murder is charged as first degree intentional homicide.

First Degree Intentional Homicide

Under Wisconsin law, a homicide committed with an intent to kill or do serious bodily injury is a first degree intentional homicide crime. If a homicide is committed under mitigating circumstances, the charge may be mitigated to second degree intentional homicide or non-criminal homicide.

Mitigating Circumstances

If a homicide is committed under mitigating circumstances, a first degree intentional homicide may be mitigated to second degree intentional homicide or precluded from prosecution (a non-criminal act). Mitigating circumstances can include several factors, such as adequate provocation (often called the "heat of passion" crime), defensive force, prevention of a felony, coercion or necessity.

Second Degree Intentional Homicide

Second degree intentional homicide includes intentional homicide crimes that are not first degree crimes, first degree intentional homicide committed under mitigating circumstances, and certain other homicide crimes such as those homicides committed during the delivery of a controlled substance (drugs).

Unintended Victim of Homicide

If the actual victim of a criminal homicide is not the intended victim, the criminal homicide is till a crime. In most instances, if a victim was not intended, the homicide is still criminal because the intent to aim and fire existed. However, there are far too many "but for's", "what if's" and other mitigating circumstances involved in the crime of homicide to expound upon them completely in this medium. If you are under investigation for a homicide, or if you have been charged with a criminal homicide, please contact the attorneys at Tracey Wood & Associates right away.

Unintended Homicide Results

If an act is not intended to cause death, but a death results, the homicide can still be charged as a criminal homicide under certain situations, and may be charged even if the circumstances do not support the charge; the allegation must then be disapproved. For example, a hunter who aims a gun and shoots with the intent to kill a deer but accidentally kills a person would require a very different defense than a person who shot at a home with the intent to scare the inhabitants and unintentionally killed an occupant. Nonetheless, under Wisconsin law both situations could and likely would be charged as a criminal homicide.

Unborn Child

Under Wisconsin law, a person who kills an unborn child can be charged with murder. If the victim is an unborn child, and if the act performed resulted in the death of the unborn child, the criminal charge is the same as if the child were wholly born or an adult.

Wisconsin law permits abortion of a fetus by a medical expert licensed to perform such abortion from the moment of conception through and up and until the statutory limit as prescribed and measured by time. Abortion is not a crime if it is committed in that period of time. Perhaps noteworthy, the appellate court specifically stated that laws against killing a fetus were not ever to be construed as reference of the court's opinion of abortion.

Concealing Death Of Child

Under Wisconsin law (WI Statute 948.23), any person accused and convicted of concealing the corpse of a child expired from a woman's body (meaning regardless of the term of pregnancy) for the purpose of preventing a determination of whether the fetus was born dead or alive is guilty of a Class I felony.

Free but professional "first-impression" analysis

If you are under investigation or have been arrested for any crime, or if you have already been convicted of a crime and believe your conviction to be wrong or your sentence too harsh, please call (608) 350-1004 or email the Attorneys at Tracey Wood & Associates right away. An Attorney at Tracey Wood & Associates will provide you with a brief but professional free "first-impression" analysis of your appeal based on the facts that you are able to convey. You can also submit your case online or email the attorneys.