In this scenario, Michael commits different crimes such as battery, false imprisonment, and kidnapping. In criminal law, battery is the intentional unlawful and harmful contact with another person without their consent or excuse from the law (Stewart, 2006) . Michael committed battery when he forcefully pushed Jane into the car. There are specific rules on battery in different countries, but some elements are the same across some jurisdictions. The defendant must make an offensive contact with the victim. Also, the offender must be aware that the contact instigated on the victim would cause harm. Secondly, Micheal commits a kidnapping offense when he locks Jane inside the car and speeds off. Kidnapping occurs when one person unlawfully takes another person, transports them, or confines them in a space without the other person's consent. Thirdly, false imprisonment closely correlates to kidnapping, but they are treated differently in criminal law. However, when one person commits the two crimes, they are both charged under a single offense of kidnapping. False imprisonment is when a person restrains another person's movement without legal authority or any other legal justification, in a confined place (FindLaw, 2019) . An act of restraining can be the use of physical force or the use of physical barriers like a door. Michael blocks Jane's attempts to escape or move from the car by locking the vehicle. Jane gets restrained in the car, unwilling. Voluntary Manslaughter under Federal Law is the act of killing another person without premeditation or prior intention to cause harm after the person has had sudden provocation. Murder must meet four critical elements to be considered manslaughter in a criminal law (Content Team, 2016). The first element is that the defendant's level of provocation must have been significant enough to invoke loss of self-restraint in any reasonable person. Secondly, the time between committing the crime and being irritated must be short that it did not allow the person to calm down, thus rulling out the possibility of premeditation. Thirdly, the provocation must be the cause of the defendant's loss of control and not any other deed such as previous confrontation with the victim, even if the proved goading was not sufficient to make the defendant lose control. Lastly, the defendant must show that he was unable to control himself before killing the other person (LeMance, 2019) . If otherwise, the defendant was able to calm down before killing the other person, it might get considered to be a meditated or intended crime. The concept of adequate provocation stipulates that a defendant may have had a sudden emotional change that caused them to have a temporary loss of control (LeMance, 2019) . Sufficient provocation in criminal law is always used when a defendant tries to get a lesser charge of manslaughter instead of a murder charge. The following is an example of a Voluntary manslaughter case. In the Town of Lancaster, in Texas, a father who had been in and out police cells for child neglect, domestic violence, and child abuse came home and started beating up the wife and the children. The oldest child Mary, 19 years old, takes a gun and shoots her father, but unfortunately, the bullets pass through her father's chest and hit her younger brother Billy. Both Billy and her father, Malcolm, die. In court, Mary, as the defendant can plead guilty of voluntary manslaughter and prove that she did not intend to kill both his father and young brother if not after being provoked by Malcolm's violent abuse. In Criminal Law, felony murder is a legal rule that broadens the different types of murder. It applies when another person dies in the course of a person committing another crime that is foreseen to be dangerous to human life—for example, robbery, rape, and arson. Felony can be applied broadly depending on different countries' jurisdictions, but often when the person who died was a partner in crime or when a bystander or police cause death. The law requires some elements to be proven to prove the crime (Nolo, 2019) . These factors, also known as the elements of felony murder, include: First, the intent of the defendant to commit a dangerous felony. Secondly, in the course of the felony crime, the defendant caused succeeding events that caused the victim to die. Thirdly, proof of death of the victim. Lastly, the victim died when the defendant committed the crime of felony or when he was fleeing from the felony. In this scenario, David will be charged with felony murder for the death of John. Since the scene does not give many details, one can, however, ascertain several elements that prove the crime of felony. David must have been reasonable enough to be aware of the dangers of robbing a bank, and the consequences would mostly end up in death. Secondly, there was death. John died after being shot by police officers. Thirdly, John's death occurred during the act of robbing the bank. These elements prove that David would be found guilty of felony murder. However, many people have widely criticized the felony murder rule citing reasons that it might lead to the wrongful charging of people who had none or zero involvement in the murder. For example, in a robbery case, the person who drives the getaway car has no involvement in the murder that happened in the bank.
References
Content Team. (2016, March 19). Voluntary manslaughter . Retrieved from Legal Dictionary: https://legaldictionary.net/voluntary-manslaughter/
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Cornell Law School. (2020, April 04). False Imprisonment . Retrieved from Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/false_imprisonment
FindLaw. (2019, May 4). Kidnapping . Retrieved from Findlaw: https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/kidnapping.html
LeMance, K. (2019, March 14). Provocation Defense . Retrieved from Legal March: https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/provocation-defense.html
Nolo. (2019, April 12). Felony Murder . Retrieved from Criminal Defense Lawyer: https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/felony-murder.htm
Stewart, W. (2006, May 16). battery . Retrieved from The Free Dictionary: https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/battery
