Ana's POVIS Blog: Blog # 5: Murder

Murder

1. Murder requires an illegal taking of another’s life specifically formed around intent. Such determinations are made based upon provocation, cooling off periods, and what a reasonable person would be expected to do under the circumstances leading to the killing. Homicide can be described as any death where another person is at fault, but a homicide is committed without planning and sometimes without an intention to kill.

There are different types of homicide classifications and they generally fall into 3 general categories. These categories are: murder, manslaughter, and justifiable homicide. Justifiable homicide is for situations where an individual killed another in self-defense of similar circumstances. This is really not a legal charge but a classification for which authorities can register an event where a person died but no crime was committed. The charge of manslaughter is reserved for instances where the accused did not plan the crime nor did he or she intend for the victim to die because of their actions. Manslaughter charges usually arise out of accidental circumstances where a person died because of the event.

Murder is broken down into two categories: first degree and second degree murder. First degree murder, the most serious of all homicide charges, is reserved for situations where the person accused of the homicide planned the killing and intended for the victim to die because of his or her actions. Second degree murder is a charge reserved for cases where it cannot be proved that the killer planned the killing but where the killer still intended that the victim die because of his or her actions. Situations where second degree murder charges arise are sometimes described as “crimes of passion” or instances where the killing occurred in the “heat of passion.”

2. On March 21^st, 2013 Sherry West was pushing her 13-month old son, Antonio, in his stroller in Brunswick, Georgia on a Thursday morning when two boys – described as about 10 and 15 years old – came up, demanded money and shot them. Police announced Friday afternoon that they had arrested a 17 and a 14 year old and were charging them with murder. The arrests came after SWAT teams had gone door to door, searching for clues and police had checked local school attendance and absentee lists to see if there were any students who hadn't been at school that fit the description of the suspects. West had reported that the older boy pointed a handgun at her during the encounter. “He said, ‘I’m gonna kill you if you don’t give me your money,’ and I said, ‘I swear I don’t have any.” She also said that they wouldn't accept no for an answer. “He says, ‘Well, I’m gonna kill your baby,” she told crying. “I put my arms over my baby and he shoves. And then he shot my baby right in the head.” West was shot in the leg, according to local reports, but it was a non-life threatening gunshot wound from the handgun.

The offenders in this case are portrayed as monsters that all they wanted was money and even if they didn't get any, they still took a life to sort of punish the woman for not giving them any money. The killing is being portrayed in the media as a tragedy and it is being dramatized because it involves the death of an infant.