Often, sadly, we see on the news that a homicide or murder has been committed. Since both words are presented together on many occasions, it is common for us to believe that they mean the same thing and think that they can be used interchangeably.
Both expressions have a lot to do with each other, but what makes something considered a homicide or murder varies greatly, in addition to also implying different legal consequences.
Next we are going to see the differences between homicide and murder explaining a little how these two crimes are punished in the Spanish Penal Code.
What are the differences between homicide and murder?
On many occasions we hear the words homicide and murder, often thinking that they are synonymous, since they are related to the same act, which is taking the life of another person.
Actually, we can say that both are related and, in fact, all murders are homicides, but not all homicides are murders. The difference between both words is in the circumstances and the premeditation that may exist when committing the act
What is a homicide?
Legally, an act is only considered homicide if there is no premeditation. There may or may not have been intentionality, but it appeared at the time the act was committed, that is, there was no plan to kill the other person beforehand but rather, due to a dispute, an accident or simply a mistake. security one person has killed another.
In the Spanish Penal Code, homicide is regulated in article 138 being the first of the classified crimes.
In the event that the homicide was done intentionally, we speak of an intentional homicide, such as a domestic dispute in which the murderer stabs his partner or an armed robbery in which the thief has mortally wounded his victim. On the other hand, if someone’s death has been committed as a result of recklessness, human accident or error, we speak of involuntary or negligent homicide and examples of this case would be the death of a patient due to medical negligence, a railway accident because the driver mistaken or run over.
What is a murder?
Murder is considered a more serious form of homicide given the circumstances in which it is carried out.
In the Spanish case, murder is regulated in article 139 of the Penal Code, contemplating three cases that justify the aggravation of the penalty and the distinction.
1. Treachery
It is considered that there is treachery When the crime is committed, a form or means is used to prevent the victim from being able to defend himself Expressions of nocturnal nature are considered treacherous, that is, committing the crime at night taking advantage of the fact that the victim is asleep (sleeping people), or open spaces, which consists of taking the victim to a place where he or she cannot ask for help and where the attacker can benefit from it.
The idea of defenseless people is also raised within the treachery, such as newborn children, helpless elderly people, people with disabilities…
When this type of person is killed, the homicide is usually classified as murder in many cases, since It is understood that the author took advantage of his victim’s defenselessness It should also be said that there are those who would consider that it would be a case of intentional homicide, evaluating the possibility of whether or not there was premeditation.
The cruelty occurs when the victim’s suffering was deliberately and inhumanly increased causing a condition that is not necessary to cause his death.
It could be considered cruelty to commit the stabbing repeatedly, with the last stab being the one that hurts the victim. On the other hand, it would not be considered cruelty if the first stab wound was the one that caused death since the rest of the stab wounds that could have been made, since the victim is already dead, does not suffer.
3. Concurrence of price, reward or promise
We say that there has been concurrence of price, reward or promise when the person who has committed the crime has done so with the intention of obtaining something in return the economic motive tends to be the most common.
These three assumptions are what allow us to clearly delimit what a simple homicide is, regardless of whether it is voluntary or involuntary, from a murder.
4. Qualification of penalties
Thus, we can see based on everything we have seen so far that the main difference between a homicide and a murder is that there has been premeditation and that at least one of the assumptions of a murder is met.
The differences between homicide and murder are also reflected in the classification of sentences that can be received for having committed one of these two crimes. Taking into account that “plain” homicide is less serious in nature than murder, it makes sense to see that the penalties for this first crime are softer and lighter, with differences also depending on the type of homicide.
In the Spanish context, manslaughter carries with it penalties ranging from a maximum of 4 years if the crime was committed recklessly to 15 years if there was intention. The penalties with which the perpetrator of the crime is punished vary greatly, since having taken the life of another person is a serious act in which many factors may have been involved, ranging from 1 to 4 years in the case of homicide. guilty and from 10 to 15 years in the case of the intentional.
Murders, on the other hand, receive greater penalties based on the fact that they are premeditated, and therefore there is always intentionality, along with the fact of wanting to take advantage of the disadvantages that the victim may have (night time, open fields…) . The penalties with which murders are punished range from 15 to 20 years in prison, and can be increased to 25 years in case two or more cases of those mentioned above occur.
