With over 30 years of experience defending individuals against California Penal Code 187 PC murder charges, particularly those related to car accidents, I bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to this complex area of law.
Where I see the prosecutors filing murder charges, first and foremost, is when somebody has been using alcohol or drugs and ends up killing another person. There's a case called the Watson case that was decided in the early 1980s that basically allows the prosecutors to argue for what's called implied malice as it relates to murder charges.
In other words, normally, you have to be the cause of the person's death, and you have to have malice of forethought. But what this case allows the prosecutors to do is when someone has been drinking and driving alcohol.
Imply Malice
For example, they're going to go ahead and make the argument that everybody knows that it's dangerous and hazardous to human life to drink alcohol and drive that you could kill somebody.
Therefore, we're going to imply malice. We're going to say you had malice of forethought. It should have been foreseeable to you that you could kill somebody, and that's how they're charging these murder cases for alcohol-related deaths on the road.
I've also seen them take another step where somebody is driving in a very dangerous and wanton manner, even when they don't have alcohol in their system, and they kill someone, they can charge 2nd-degree murder in that case as well.
They can imply malice under the same theory - under the Watson murder case - and then the person is facing 15 to life for the murder charge.
Acting Recklessly
So, the answer to the question of how murder charges can be brought in an accident is this. When a death occurs due to reckless behavior, such as driving under the influence, the prosecutors have the authority to file a murder charge. This is a serious matter that requires immediate legal intervention.
That doesn't necessarily mean that it is justifiable. Sometimes, it shouldn't rise to the level of a murder charge because you were merely negligent and somebody died.
Manslaughter
It should be vehicular manslaughter or even involuntary manslaughter, where someone commits a traffic offense and death occurs.
That's an accident that probably shouldn't even be charged as a crime, but there are those three charges.
There's involuntary manslaughter, where someone acts negligently on the road and kills somebody; there's vehicular manslaughter, where someone acts in a grossly negligent manner and kills someone.
Then, there's finally the murder charge, where somebody acts with wanton disregard for human life - somebody drinks and drives and another person dies.
Specialized Defense
In my opinion, these cases are very specialized. You want to get a criminal defense attorney who has battled the prosecutors in these cases and had success because if you don't and you lose, it will be too late.
You could say you're going to appeal all you want while you sit in prison serving a 15 to life sentence.
If you need the best, pick up the phone now. Ask for a meeting with Ron Hedding. Let me put my 30+ years of experience to work for you. I've worked for the district attorney's office, for a superior court judge as his right-hand man. Finally, in the early 1990s, I began defending people charged with murder cases, and I've been fighting those cases ever since.
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