In the explanatory notes to the Law (Proposed Penal Law (Amendment No. 124) (Homicide Offenses), 5776-2015, H.H. 972), it was noted in relation to this offense as follows:
"The offense of murder in the proposed formula is intended to apply to the most serious cases of homicide, but not to the most serious cases (hereinafter – the offense of murder or the basic offense of murder). The most serious cases of homicide are intended for the offense of murder under aggravated circumstances, which is proposed to be determined in section 6 of this bill, and which is, to a large extent, the essential substitute for the offense of murder in its current formulation."
- For cases that are lighter than the "basic" murder offense, Mora Section 301C to the law, that:
"Whoever causes the death of a person with negligence shall be sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment."
- Since it was determined in my colleague's above opinion that the defendant was aware of the nature of the act, the existence of the circumstances and the possibility of causing the consequences of the act, the question that therefore remains relates "only" to the mental element that existed in the defendant "with regard to the consequences" – "intention" or "indifference" or "frivolity". Where the possibility that the defendant killed the deceased recklessly in the opinion of my colleague was rejected, and where I accept the reasons presented by her that led to her rejecting this possibility, all that remains for me to determine is whether the mental element that existed in the defendant, when he shot the deceased, was one of "intention" or "indifference".
- In the circumstances of the case, and for the reasons that I will detail below, there is no doubt in my heart that the defendant committed the basic offense of murder with intention.
- Article 19 The law states:
- A person commits an offense only if it is committed with criminal intent, unless –
(1) It is determined in the definition of the offense that negligence is the mental element necessary for its formation; or