Austin Murder Defense Lawyers

Murder Charges

The state of Texas recognizes the crime of homicide. Homicide is the killing of another human being. This classification is commonly mistaken as murder. In Texas, there are two types of homicide, manslaughter and murder.

Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another person without premeditation or an evil intent prior to the killing. Basically, you were doing something else and a person dies because of your actions but you didn’t go into the situation planning on killing someone. This is the main difference between murder and manslaughter. There are two divisions of manslaughter, voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary manslaughter is when a person kills another person in the heat of passion or while committing a felony. Involuntary manslaughter occurs when a death is caused by violation of a non-felony, such as hitting a person with a car which causes them to die.

Murder is the killing of another human being by a sane person who has intent, malice aforethought, and with no legal excuse or authority. When murder is brought before the court, there are certain situations which will garner a charge of capital murder rather than plain murder. Capital murder can be applied to 7 different situations. First, a person kills a child that is under 6 years of age because it is considered especially heinous. Second, murder of a peace officer, public safety officer, firefighter, or correctional officer. Third, murder for remuneration or hire. Remuneration would be an applicable charge if a person killed another person for an individual as a way to re-pay a debt of some sort. “For hire” would be killing someone because you were paid to do it in some way. Fourth, a murder that is committed during specific felonies such as kidnapping and robbery. Fifth, a murder that occurs while an individual is escaping from a prison. Sixth, a murder by a prisoner that is already serving a life sentence, and seventh, murdering multiple people will garner an individual a Capital Murder charge.

In Texas, Capital Murder is one of the very few crimes that will result in a person getting sentenced to capital punishment, also known as the death penalty. The other forms of murder will vary between other felony charges. None of these charges have lenient prison sentences to go along with them if a person is convicted. Because of this, it is imperative to retain an experienced criminal defense attorney. Contact the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers of Morales & Navarrete to develop a plan for your defense that will be most beneficial to you.