culpable homicide, noun phrase

Origin:
EnglishShow more English culpable deserving blame or censure + homicide the action, by a human being, of killing a human being.
Law
The unlawful but unpremeditated killing of a person.
Note:
Used also in Scottish English. Cf. British English ‘manslaughter’.
1832 Graham’s Town Jrnl 20 Apr. 68Hermanus Terblantz, Hottentot, was indicted for Culpable Homicide, in having caused the death of Katreyn, his wife, by blows of an achter os sambok, and other injuries.
1889 Cape Law Jrnl VI. 110Topsy v. The State...On an indictment for the culpable homicide..of her new born infant, Held, that the prisoner could not be found guilty of concealment of birth.
1904 C.H. Tredgold Handbk of Col. Criminal Law 119Killing, which would otherwise be murder, is culpable homicide if the act causing death is done in the heat of passion, caused by provocation.
1949 E. Hellmann Rooiyard 93A Native, in a state of extreme intoxication, had stabbed a Rooiyard Native fatally. The offender was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to lashes and a lengthy term of imprisonment.
1955 Act 56 in Stat. of Union 1160Any person charged with murder in regard to whom it is proved that he wrongfully caused the death of the deceased, but without intent, may be found guilty of culpable homicide.
1960 Hahlo & Kahn Union of S. Afr. 312Culpable homicide differs from murder in that the unlawful killing is not accompanied by intention to kill, some lesser but nevertheless blameworthy state of mind being sufficient.
1979 W. Ebersohn Lonely Place 178To kill an Afrikaner was murder. To kill a Jew might be no more than culpable homicide. But N’Kosana was black. Killing him would not be a crime of any description.
1986 Reader’s Digest Family Guide to Law 101Murder and culpable homicide are both forms of unlawful killing, but the crucial difference is that if a man kills intentionally it is murder, whereas if he kills negligently it is culpable homicide.
1991 E. Prov. Herald 14 Mar. 3A stern warning was given to reckless motorists yesterday, when a Johannesburg magistrate..sentenced a 19-year-old woman to an effective 18 months’ imprisonment for culpable homicide.
The unlawful but unpremeditated killing of a person.
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