Why is this racially-motivated murder not first-degree murder? Why is it considered second-degree murder? I look forward to your feedback.
After Army veteran James Harris Jackson was done plunging his 18-inch sword into the chest and back of 66-year-old Timothy Caughman — a beloved autograph collector and trash recycler — he apparently made a pit stop.
“He stopped at the library,” the source said, though it’s unclear which one specifically.
Jackson, who is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, traveled from his home city of Baltimore to New York to kill as many black men as he could, according to prosecutors.
It simply doesn’t meet the criteria for first degree murder in New York. Heading more to GD or IMHO territory, first degree murder in New York is aimed at people who interfere with the justice system (victim is judge, cop, witness, etc), commit multiple murders, torture the victim, commit murder for hire, or commit murder in the course of another crime. Murder in general is a bad thing, but that doesn’t mean that every murder should be classed as first degree.
The aggravating factors in sec. 125.27 noted by Pantastic are largely congruent with the aggravating factors that will support application of the death penalty. My guess would be that back when capital punishment was permissible under NY law, that section defined the qualifying circumstances. As it stands now, crimes in this section seem to warrant a higher minimum on the sentencing range.
Ordinary premeditated murder is classed by NY as second-degree murder, and what many states call second-degree murder – unpremeditated killing under extreme emotional distress – is first-degree manslaughter.
Interestingly, New York’s scheme of murder classification is somewhat different from the “normal” approach, which defines murder in the first degree as the pre-meditated intentional killing of another human being without valid excuse. Clearly, under that standard, the defendant would be facing charges of murder in the first degree.
Just to clarify, the distinction of the two different charges is the mandatory sentences each carries.
Mandatory sentences in New York for murder -
Second Degree Murder Minimum: 15 years to life, Maximum: 25 years to life
First Degree Murder Minimum: 20 years to life, Maximum: Life without Parole
The aggravating factor of a hate crime will probably get the perpetrator the maximum sentence, and if he killed more than one black person in New York, he will probably get consecutive, not concurrent sentences.
Concurrent sentences still are harsher than single sentences, because most states have “good time” credit, where for every day you serve without causing trouble, you get credit for two days. If you are serving several concurrent sentence, this benefit doesn’t end up shortening your sentence by much, because the you knock the extra days off only one sentence at a time.
But consecutive sentence are very harsh. Lifers can still get parole. Someone serving 300 years in never getting out even with good time credit-- they might be eligible for parole, but it never come up for them.
To further clarify, this would be handled very differently in other jurisdictions. As DSYoungEsq notes, it is likely that most places in the US would consider this first degree murder, with the hate crime added (if that state has a hate crime statute). Even in New York, the hate crime designation is a secondary designation to the charged crime.