What is the difference between homicide from murder?
Homicide is the generic term to describe when one person kills another person, regardless if it was intentional, unintentional, pre-meditated or not-pre-meditated. Murder, however, deals with the malicious intent to commit a killing. If a person breaks into your house while you are asleep, attempts to kill you, you pull out your gun and shoot and kill him… generally, that is “homicide” but not “murder.” And it’s usually “justifiable homicide.” If you hate your next door neighbor, plan to shoot him on Tuesday, and actually shoot him that night – that is indeed “homicide” – but you will most likely be found to have committed a malicious intent to “murder” as well. All murder is homicide, but not all homicide is murder.
