Is manslaughter a sin?

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Very brief legal digression from a lawyer.

Under Common Law (England and most English speaking lands, including US),

Murder is the taking of human life with a mental state of “reckless disregard for human life”–aware of the risk and take it anyway.

Voluntary manslaughter is the taking of human life with a mental state of “criminal negligence”. (a bit more than regular negligence, which is that the “reasonable man” should have been aware of the risk).

Involuntary manslaughter is not something in it’s own right, but rather murder but with some mitigating factor that would cause the “ordinary man” to lose his reason for the moment (the classic case being catching his wife in the act of adultery and killing them both) [note the the reasonable man, unlike the ordinary man, never loses control in this way]).
 
Having practiced criminal law, it is a bit more than “think whatever I wish”.

Having full knowledge would indicate something above the level of manslaughter.

God bless.
 
In Oregon, second degree manslaughter would require recklessness; criminally negligent homicide (a lesser crime) would require criminal negligence, not ordinary negligence… The OP cited neither.

The discussion has wandered off point.
 
Again, we have wandered off point; the OP in their post did not cite anything other than ordinary negligence, which does not rise to the level of manslaughter.
 
Okay, if you are speaking of negligent homicide, that also is a sin under the Mosaic law.
 
Lol having violated criminal law I also have experience. You are confusing legal issues with moral ones in my opinion. So, yes you can think as you wish. I obviously disagree with you but would love you on my jury.
 
otjm said:
In Oregon, second degree manslaughter would require recklessness; criminally negligent homicide (a lesser crime) would require criminal negligence, not ordinary negligence… The OP cited neither.
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Oregon, then, is an exception. Those simply are not the “standard” definition. (OK, neither is “degrees” for either murder or manslaughter [other than the voluntary/involuntary distinctions]).

Come to think of it, I don’t know whether Nevada (where I practice) follows the Common Law definitions (although I expect so), or California (where I used to practice) follows either (but I"d be surprised if they did).

I haven’t practiced serious criminal law in 20 years, but Nevada still relied on many Common Law definitions (statutes with penalties for various crimes, but no statutory definitions of many of the crimes).

hawk, esq.
 
Well the D.A. left me on one jury, I think on purpose. I never asked the defense attorney, but I was willing to bet good money that he filed the lawsuit against the police agency the afternoon after the “Not Guilty” verdict was returned.

However, I don’t think I am conflating the two. If the only discussion was of the headline of the thread, I would agree that manslaughter is likely also sin.

However, the question the OP actually asked, as opposed to the headline, is that it is likely ni=either a sin nor manslaughter, as set out by the OP. at best it is negligence.

Airplanes fall out of the sky with enough regularity that anyone flying one must have it in the back of their mind at least, that the place could crash. That does not equate with some unspecified negligence resulting in a decree of manslaughter, or a mortal sin.
 
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otjm said:
Airplanes fall out of the sky with enough regularity that anyone flying one must have it in the back of their mind at least, that the place could crash. That does not equate with some unspecified negligence resulting in a decree of manslaughter, or a mortal sin.
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Having piloted aircraft for the better part of 35 years, it’s extremely rare that a pilot, in either Canada or the USA, is charged with manslaughter. Most crashes do not occur because of gross negligence; since the pilot is usually the first to arrive at the scene of the crash, (s)he has a vested interest in not being too lackadaisical about safety. I stopped flying 4 years ago, but as I survived without dinging my airplane it’s because I always flew with vigilance and caution and never beyond my skill level, plus a measure of good luck (or as I prefer to call it: good maintenance!).

Now negligence does happen in aviation, especially in General Aviation. Poorly maintained aircraft, not keeping current, flying without a valid medical, not getting a proper weather briefing, taking off overweight, not enough fuel for the planned flight, etc. Usually the outcome, assuming the pilot survives, is being charged with a violation of some article of the Aeronautics Act. But often, the crash report reads something like this when a private plane has a fatal crash “Fatalities: Crew 1, Passengers X (where X = anything from zero up to the capacity of the plane)”.

Airliner crashes are usually more complex and generally happen because a number of issues align (the “Swiss cheese” model where all the holes line up), where any one of the single issues is not enough to bring down the aircraft, but all of them together are. Sometimes one or two of the holes that line up are “pilot error”, but error is not manslaughter even if many people die. The expected standard is “to the best of one’s abilities” and not perfection.

Some countries do automatically arrest surviving crew in a crash and charge them with manslaughter. N. America does not.
 
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