Created by FindLaw's team of legal writers and editors | Last reviewed June 20, 2016
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In Delaware, there are six types of criminal homicide: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, murder by abuse or neglect, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and vehicular homicide. This article briefly outlines Delaware's second-degree murder law.
Code Section |
Delaware Code section 635: Murder in the Second Degree |
What's Prohibited? |
A person commits second-degree murder when:
|
Penalties |
Murder in the second degree is a class A felony. |
In Delaware, the crime of murder by abusing or neglecting a child is closely related to the crime of second-degree murder as they both can involve a killing done recklessly under cruel circumstances. The crime of murder by abuse or neglect is broken down into two degrees, as the tables below show.
Code Section |
Delaware Code section 634: Murder by Abuse or Neglect in the First Degree |
What's Prohibited? |
A person is guilty of murder by abuse or neglect in the first degree when the person recklessly causes the death of a child:
|
Penalties |
Murder by abuse or neglect in the first degree is a class A felony. |
Code Section |
Delaware Code section 633: Murder by Abuse or Neglect in the Second Degree |
What's Prohibited? |
A person is guilty of murder by abuse or neglect in the second degree when, with criminal negligence, the person causes the death of a child:
|
Penalties |
Murder by abuse or neglect in the second degree is a class B felony. |
Under Delaware's murder by abuse or neglect laws, the following definitions apply:
Abuse: Causing any physical injury to a child through unjustified force, torture, negligent treatment, sexual abuse, exploitation, maltreatment, mistreatment, or any means other than accident.
Neglect: Being responsible for the care, custody, and/or control of a child and, while having the ability and financial means to provide for the care of the child:
Child: Any person who is less than 14 years old.
Previous pattern of abuse and/or neglect: Two or more incidents of conduct that constitute an act of abuse and/or neglect, and aren't so closely related to each other or connected in point of time and place that they constitute a single event.
State laws change frequently. For case specific information regarding Delaware's second-degree murder law contact a local criminal defense lawyer.
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