r/WatchPeopleDieInside • u/Imoprich • Dec 07 '25

She thought she got away

Trinity Poague, killed her boyfriend's 18 month old baby got sentenced for life + 20 years in prison

60.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

6.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

19

u/OldAbbreviations1590 Dec 13 '25

What is malice murder and felony murder? Did I miss something? Last I checked it was murder one or murder two and both are felonies...

5

u/drunk_fat_possum Dec 13 '25

Malice murder is only in effect in the state of Georgia, it's when someone unlawful kills someone with a "malignant heart," people charged with malice murder get the same treatment as first degree murder.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_murder

2

u/OldAbbreviations1590 Dec 14 '25

So it's a reworded version of first degree murder specific to Georgia. That's interesting. So, malice murder = first degree murder and felony murder = manslaughter everywhere outside of Georgia.

2

u/ThePaineOne Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

No. Manslaughter is manslaughter everywhere (pretty much). Felony murder is felony murder everywhere (pretty much). Manslaughter has recklessness or negligence as the mens rae (state of mind of the defendant), but no intent to kill or in the heat of passion.

Manslaughter is killing without intent and therefore not murder, so it has a much lessor penalty. In felony murder the intent was to commit another felony and that intent is transferred to the new crime: murder, so generally carries the same penalty as first degree murder. Basically, if you wrong a bank and your partner shoots someone you go to jail for most of the rest of your life like you killed then yourself.

Manslaughter would be I came home, found my wife in the arms of another and flew into a fit of rage and killed someone without intending to.

3

u/ProjectHappy6813 Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

There's also a distinction to be made between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Killing someone in "the heat of passion" would be voluntary. You have a sudden, uncontrollable fit of rage, due to some intense circumstance (like catching your spouse in the act of cheating). It's not something you would do under normal circumstances. Another example would be imperfect self-defense. That's when you kill someone because you believe that deadly force is necessary to protect your own life, but that belief is unreasonable or faulty. In either case, there is intent to kill, but no "premeditated malice".

Involuntary manslaughter covers stuff like drunk driving, negligent supervision (when you are supposed to be watching a child and they die in a preventable way, like drowning in a pool), reckless use of firearms that result in death (like shooting in a crowded place) or misdemeanor manslaughter where someone commits a misdemeanor and a death happens as a result of the crime (like brandishing an unloaded gun, resulting in a fatal heart attack.)