Minnesota Session Laws - 1988, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1988 

                         CHAPTER 604-H.F.No. 10 
           An act relating to crimes; clarifying that the crying 
          of a child does not constitute provocation under first 
          degree manslaughter; amending Minnesota Statutes 1987 
          Supplement, section 609.20. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1987 Supplement, section 
609.20, is amended to read:  
    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) 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; 
or 
    (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. 
    Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Section 1 is effective August 1, 1988, and applies to 
crimes committed on or after that date. 
    Approved April 24, 1988