US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

     609.20 Manslaughter in the first degree. 

    Whoever does any of the following is guilty of manslaughter 
 in the first degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not 
 more than 15 years or to payment of a fine of not more than 
 $30,000, or both: 

    (1) intentionally causes the death of another person in the 
 heat of passion provoked by such words or acts of another as 
 would provoke a person of ordinary self-control under like 
 circumstances, provided that the crying of a child does not 
 constitute provocation; 

    (2) violates section 609.224 and causes the death of 
 another or causes the death of another in committing or 
 attempting to commit a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor offense 
 with such force and violence that death of or great bodily harm 
 to any person was reasonably foreseeable, and murder in the 
 first or second degree was not committed thereby; 

    (3) intentionally causes the death of another person 
 because the actor is coerced by threats made by someone other 
 than the actor's coconspirator and which cause the actor 
 reasonably to believe that the act performed by the actor is the 
 only means of preventing imminent death to the actor or another; 

    (4) proximately causes the death of another, without intent 
 to cause death by, directly or indirectly, unlawfully selling, 
 giving away, bartering, delivering, exchanging, distributing, or 
 administering a controlled substance classified in schedule III, 
 IV, or V; or 

    (5) causes the death of another in committing or attempting 
 to commit a violation of section 609.377 (malicious punishment 
 of a child), and murder in the first, second, or third degree is 
 not committed thereby. 

    As used in this section, a "person of ordinary self-control"
 does not include a person under the influence of intoxicants or 
 a controlled substance. 

    HIST: 1963 c 753 art 1 s 609.20; 1981 c 227 s 12; 1984 c 628 
 art 3 s 3; 1986 c 444; 1987 c 176 s 2; 1988 c 604 s 1; 1995 c 
 244 s 13; 1996 c 408 art 3 s 13 

Copyright 2005 by the Office of Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota.