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SUBZERO CRIMINAL DEFENSE
1st Degree Manslaughter
There are 5 different ways to be charged with 1st degree manslaughter.
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Heat of Passion
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While Committing a Misdemeanor or Gross Misdemeanor
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Coercion
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Drug Distribution - Schedule III, IV, or V
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malicious punishment of a child
1. Heat of Passion
(Minn. Stat. § 609.20(1))
Intentionally causing the death of another person in the heat of passion provoked by such words or acts of another as would provoke a person of ordinary self-control under like circumstances is 1st degree manslaughter.
3. Coercion
(Minn. Stat. § 609.20(3))
Intentionally causes the death of another person because the actor is coerced by threats made by someone other than the actor's coconspirator and which cause the actor reasonably to believe that the act performed by the actor is the only means of preventing imminent death to the actor or another is 1st degree manslaughter. However, there is also a separate coercion defense that makes the applicability of this charge questionable.
5. Malicious Punishment of a Child
(Minn. Stat. § 609.20(5))
Causing the death of another in committing or attempting to commit a malicious punishment of a child, and the conduct does not fit the murder statutes, is 1st degree manslaughter.
2. While Committing a Misdemeanor or Gross Misdemeanor
(Minn. Stat. § 609.20(2))
Causing the death of another in committing or attempting to commit a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor offense with such force and violence that death of or great bodily harm to any person was reasonably foreseeable is 1st degree manslaughter (unless the conduct fits the requirements for 1st or 2nd degree murder).
4. Drug Distribution - Schedule III, IV, or V
(Minn. Stat. § 609.20(4))
Proximately causing the death of another, without intent to cause death by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging, distributing, or administering a controlled substance classified in Schedule III, IV, or V is 1st degree manslaughter.