Killing someone you meant to kill. A killing which was thought out and was considered/thought out before hand. Also there is usually malice.
First degree murder: premeditated and intentional killing of another, and culpable mental state. Second degree murder: knowingly killed someone.
1st degree is worse because you get a longer prison sentence and you plan on the murder, you go into the crime intentionally killing that person.
First degree murder is premeditated. Second degree murder is intentional but without premeditation. Third degree is criminally negligent.
First Degree Murder
Although the wording may be different in different states, the meaning is the same. The crime of first-degree murder is the act of committing an unlawful killing that is willful or premeditated.
1st degree murder is worse.
Nothing is different between 1st degree murder and 1st degree felony murder. The only difference is the addition of the word "felony". In fact, both are the same crime and both are felonies, so "1st degree felony murder" is a redundant term.
In Canada if a person still has three prior assault charges pending,what happens when he gets a new charge of second degree murder? could he get out on bail,and how much jail time is he looking at?
First Degree Murder means that the crime was pre-meditated. Second Degree Murder means that death was caused but the actual killing may not have been pre-meditated beforehand.
Conclusively prove you did not and could not have done the murder.
A first degree murder charge gets you life w/o parole in most cases.
In most jurisdictions, that would be first degree murder.