First-degree murder
Paul decides he wants to kill Johnnie, the leader of a rival gang. Paul knows that Johnnie always hangs out in front of the gas station on Friday nights. Paul puts his gun in the glove compartment of his car and drives to the gas station on a Friday night. He sees Johnnie standing out front. He slowly drives by, takes aim, and shoots Johnnie from the car, killing him.
Could this be first-degree murder? Why or why not?
Use proper APA formatting and citations, including ‘in-text’ citations.
Reference at least 2 outside credible resources.
ANSWER
First-Degree Murder
This is first-degree murder. According to the United States law, first-degree murder is any form of a premeditated killing and is done with the intent to harm (Sehan, 2021). It is planned and carefully orchestrated and shows disregard for human life. In this case, Paul committed first-degree murder as he carefully thought about his plan. He drove himself to the place where Johnnie hanged out and shot him. He also used his gloves, showing that he was aware that whatever he was doing was harmful. According to the law, premeditated murder includes purchasing the tools involved in the murder. In this case, Paul bought gloves to cover his tracks, and thus, this is considered a first-degree murder due to the premeditation and driving through the gas station and ensuring that he aimed the gun at Johnnie and aimed to a post that would kill him.
The murder was also carried out with criminal intent. Paul wanted to kill Johnnie and thus knew that he was going to commit a crime but still went through with it. The murder committed by Paul was a drive-by murder. That means he observed Johnnie at his usual hanging out place, which is the gas station, and killed him from his car. It is murder by specified means. The specified means was using a gun from his car. This case qualifies for all the qualities of first-degree murder (Ciocan, 2021). It was premeditated as he thought about it. He bought the gloves, targeted his victim at his favorite hang-out spot, and killed him. The plan was carefully executed, thus killing him due to the careful execution of the murder plan.
References
Ciocan, C. (2021). Criminological Aspects regarding the Offense of First Degree Murder. Rev. Universul Juridic, 53.
Sehat, S. (2021). Committing Murder and Punishment in US Criminal Law. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(13), 7895-7906.
