Manslaughter is a crime in the United States. Definitions can vary among jurisdictions, but manslaughter is invariably the act of causing the death of another person in a manner less culpable than murder.
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Voluntary manslaughter
There have been many types of voluntary manslaughter. These have not been differentiated here as they are so closely related or indistinguishable that many US jurisdictions do not differentiate between them. The following are some examples of defenses which may be raised to mitigate murder to voluntary manslaughter:
Constructive manslaughter
In the United States, misdemeanor manslaughter is a lesser version of felony murder, and covers a person who causes the death of another while committing a misdemeanor – that is, a violation of law which doesn't rise to the level of a felony. This may automatically lead to a conviction for the homicide if the misdemeanor involved is a law designed to protect human life. Many violations of safety laws are infractions, which means that a person can be convicted regardless of mens rea.
Criminally negligent manslaughter
In jurisdictions such as Pennsylvania, if a person is so reckless as to "manifest extreme indifference to human life", the defendant may be guilty of aggravated assault as well as of involuntary manslaughter.
In many jurisdictions such as California, malice may be found if gross negligence amounts to willful or depraved indifference to human life. In such a case, the wrongdoer may be guilty of second degree murder.
Vehicular manslaughter
Vehicular manslaughter is a class C felony which holds people liable for any death which occurs because of criminal negligence, or a violation of traffic safety laws. A common use of the vehicular manslaughter laws involves prosecution for a death caused by driving under the influence of intoxicating substances (determined by excessive blood alcohol content levels set by individual U.S. states), although an independent infraction (such as driving with a suspended driver's license), or negligence, is usually also required.
In Wisconsin, a person who causes death with any type of motor vehicle while legally intoxicated may be liable and charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. Culpability lies with the perpetrator. In 2003 the maximum prison term for conviction on that charge was reduced from 40 years to 15 years imprisonment. The length of sentence is now equivalent to a charge and conviction in Wisconsin of second-degree reckless homicide. In Wisconsin, as in most states, vehicular homicide occurs when the act is not perpetrated during a felony, because driving while under the influence is not a felony.
In some U.S. states, such as Texas, intoxication manslaughter is a distinctly defined offense. A person commits intoxication manslaughter if he, or she, operates a motor vehicle in a public place, operates an aircraft, a watercraft, or an amusement ride, or assembles a mobile amusement ride while intoxicated and, by reason of that intoxication, causes the death of another by accident or mistake.
Intoxication manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and other similar offenses require a lesser mens rea than other manslaughter offenses. Furthermore, the fact that the defendant is entitled to use the alcohol, controlled substance, drug, dangerous drug, or other substance, is no defense. For example, in Texas, to prove intoxication manslaughter, it is not necessary to prove the person was negligent in causing the death of another, nor that they unlawfully used the substance that intoxicated them, but only that they were intoxicated, and operated a motor vehicle, and someone died as a result. The same rule of law applies in New York for vehicular manslaughter in the second degree.
Assisted suicide
In some U.S. states, assisted suicide is punishable as a second degree of manslaughter.
First and second degree
In New York State, manslaughter in the first degree is defined as conduct that causes a death with intent to cause serious physical injury, which corresponds to "voluntary manslaughter" in some other states. If the intent was to cause death, it would be murder. If there is not intent to cause serious physical injury, but the conduct recklessly causes death, then the New York State term is manslaughter in the second degree. This corresponds to "involuntary manslaughter" in some other states.
These crimes are referred to as "Man 1" and "Man 2", similar to "Murder 1" and "Murder 2" referring to murder in the first and second degrees.