Vehicular Crimes Definitive Guide

What Is Vehicular Manslaughter?

This refers to the category of Arizona crimes where a person was killed during a car accident. This includes vehicular manslaughter, but also negligent homicide.

Commonly these kinds of accident involve the use of alcohol, drugs or prescriptions medications. There are also some vehicular homicide cases where impairment is not a factor. These case usually involve an allegation of extremely excessive speed violations.

Distinguishing characteristic between “murder” and “manslaughter” is that malice is not element of latter.

Harding v. State, 26 Ariz. 334, 225 P. 482 (1924)

Arizona Laws

• Manslaughter A.R.S. 13-1103
• Negligent Homicide A.R.S. 13-1102
• Definitions A.R.S. § 13-105(9)(d)
• A.R.S. 13-1103 provides 5 circumstances in which a person is considered to have committed manslaughter.  Manslaughter is a class 2 felony in Arizona.
• A.R.S. 13-1103 provides classifications for negligent homicide which is a class 4 felony in Arizona.

Manslaughter requires the government to prove that the person recklessly caused the death of another person. See § 13-1103. These cases are frequently DUI related homicides. Manslaughter is a class 2 felony.

• Recklessly Cause Death: A person commits manslaughter if they recklessly causes the death of another person. The phrase manifesting extreme indifference to human life doesn’t add an additional culpable mental state but only requires an extreme form of recklessness that is greater than is required for manslaughter. 
• Extreme Indifference to Human Life: Whether or not such an “extreme indifference’ to human life exists is to be determined from all the facts and circumstances surrounding the vehicular homicide.”
• Distracted Driving | Driving While Sleepy | Falling Asleep

Voluntary Manslaughter

A conviction for voluntary manslaughter requires evidence of an unlawful (unjustified) killing without malice (without the intent to kill), upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion. State v. McIntyre 106 Ariz. 439, 477 P.2d 529 (1970)

Reckless Manslaughter

Reckless manslaughter involves being aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that one's conduct will cause another's death and consciously disregarding that risk.  State v. Walton, 133 Ariz. 282, 650 P.2d 1264 (App. 1982)

The culpable mental state of recklessness is less than the intentional conduct required for an attempted manslaughter conviction. State v. Ruiz, 340 P.3d 396 (App. 2014)

Second-Degree Murder

The difference between second-degree murder and manslaughter is the degree of “recklessness” that is attributable to a person’s conduct. On one hand, a person commits second-degree murder if “[u]nder circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, the person recklessly engages in conduct that creates a grave risk of death and thereby causes the death of another person.”

Negligent Homicide

A person commits negligent homicide in Arizona if:

1. With criminal negligence
2. The person causes the death of another person. A.R.S. § 13-1102.

Criminal negligence is, with respect to the circumstances or result of an offense, the failure to “perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists.

The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.” A.R.S. § 13-105(9)(d).

Learn More About Vehicular Manslaughter