HW Legal
Both offences involve the killing (the taking of the life) of a human being. Death here means the biological death of the brain, where the restoration of all vital functions is ruled out.
A killing can be committed either by an act (for example stabbing, shooting, or giving the victim poison over a longer period) or by a failure to act where the offender had a duty to act, given the circumstances and their situation (for example a doctor who deliberately fails to carry out the duty to give a patient medication). With manslaughter, though, killing by omission will be rather exceptional.
Murder
Murder is an intentional offence. That means the offender must act with the intention of killing another person. If the offender acted intending to threaten some other interest protected by the Criminal Code (one other than the protection of life), but their conduct resulted in death, the offender is not criminally liable for murder.
Example: the offender wanted to cause another person bodily harm and hit them on the head; the victim staggered, fell down the stairs, broke their neck, and died. The offender would not be liable for murder, but for causing bodily harm, or possibly grievous bodily harm resulting in death.
Murder comes in three types.
Simple murder
An offender commits simple murder if they intentionally kill another person on a sudden impulse. The offender has not "thought the murder through and planned it in advance", but acts on an immediate urge, in the heat of the moment, in a rage, or in a similar state. The offender is not, however, in a state of strong agitation, nor acting as a result of provocation by the victim (that would be manslaughter, more on which below).
Examples: during an argument, in a sudden fit of anger, the offender stabbed the bent-over victim in the back with a kitchen knife with such force that it severed the spinal cord and struck the aorta. The victim died on the spot.
A man came back from a business trip a day early and, arriving home, found that his wife had a lover in the house. He took a pistol from a kitchen drawer, then ran into the bedroom where his wife and the lover were, and shot the lover dead.
Simple murder carries a prison sentence of 10 to 18 years.
Premeditated murder
An offender commits premeditated murder if they kill another person with deliberation or after prior consideration. This is not a special kind of intent, but rather a certain reasoned thought process on the offender's part (a decision) before committing the act.
Deliberation means that the offender duly weighs up their conduct and, on the basis of that subjective approach, intentionally kills another person. Prior consideration means that the offender plans the act in advance, weighing up beforehand the decisive circumstances of carrying it out (the place, the time, the use of a weapon or some other means suitable for killing another person, so that the murder is carried out successfully and any effective defence by the victim is ruled out, and so on).
Example: the offender planned and carried out the freeing of his accomplices while they were being escorted to prison. Part of the plan was to neutralise the police escort by opening fire. He accepted that his shooting would kill at least some of the officers.
Premeditated murder carries a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years.
Murder with especially aggravating circumstances
The third type is murder committed with especially aggravating circumstances. This means the offender commits the act, for example, against a child under 15, against a pregnant woman, against two or more people, against a public official in the course of or because of the exercise of their authority, or against a witness, an expert, or an interpreter in connection with the performance of their duties. It also covers, for instance, committing murder more than once.
In terms of fault, negligence is enough where the especially aggravating circumstance is concerned.
Example: in the case of murdering a pregnant woman, the offender does not need to have known she was pregnant. It is enough that, given the circumstances of the case and their own subjective capacity, they should and could have known about the pregnancy.
For this offence the law sets a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years.
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is what is known as a privileged form of the offence of murder. From a criminal-law point of view, the offender is "privileged" because of their subjective state when committing the act. What does that mean? Manslaughter too is an intentional offence (so the offender at least knows their conduct may cause a person's death, and accepts that). Even so, the offender acts:
- in a state of strong agitation arising from fear, confusion, or another excusable emotional impulse, or
- as a result of the victim's prior reprehensible conduct (so-called provocation).
Strong agitation is a particular mental state of the offender that shows itself internally and usually outwardly too. It is a marked emotional arousal or unrest, and can take the form of a sudden or violent affective reaction. Although such a state need not necessarily affect the offender's sanity, it will usually lead to a considerable narrowing of their awareness and a weakening of their psychological inhibitions, because it affects their ability to think rationally. Although killing another person in such a state is not justifiable, the law judges this conduct more leniently.
Examples: a woman is walking home at night and realises a strange man is following her. She is in a deserted spot outside town and starts to run; the man runs after her and gets closer. In a state of strong agitation brought on by fear, she pulls a pocket knife from her handbag, stops, and stabs her pursuer several times. She wounds him in such a way that the man dies on the spot.
A man took an axe and went out into the garden one evening to chop firewood for the fireplace. Just then a neighbour jumped out at him from the bushes, meaning to startle him as a joke. The man, caught off guard, instinctively swung the axe, struck the neighbour, and killed him.
Manslaughter carries a prison sentence of 3 to 10 years. If the act is committed against two or more people, against a child under 15, or against a pregnant woman, the sentence is 5 to 15 years.
In conclusion
With murder, even preparation is punishable. With manslaughter, given the nature of the offence, preparation is not possible. Over the whole of 2023, the Czech Police recorded a total of 159 murders across the Czech Republic.