Note:  These definitions may not be  the same as the definition of the same charges in Kansas in 1904.

MURDER, FIRST DEGREE - In order for someone to be found guilty of first
    Degree murder the government must prove that the person killed another person;
    The person killed the other person with malice aforethought; and the killing was
    Premeditated.

    To kill with malice aforethought means to kill either deliberately and
    Intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life.

    Premeditation means with planning or deliberation. The amount of time needed
    For premeditation of a killing depends on the person and the circumstances. It
    Must be long enough, after forming the intent to kill, for the killer to have been
    Fully conscious of the intent and to have considered the killing.
 
 

    MURDER, SECOND DEGREE -. The elements are identical with those for 1st
    Degree murder. The practical difference is the sentences are different. Which
    Crime to charge is usually entirely up to the prosecutor’s discretion.

    MANSLAUGHTER, VOLUNTARY - In order for someone to be found guilty of
    Voluntary manslaughter the government must prove that the person killed
    Another person; the person acted in the heat of passion; and heat of passion was
    Caused by adequate provocation.

    Fear, rage, anger or terror may provoke heat of passion. Provocation, in
    Order to be adequate, must be such as might naturally cause a reasonable person
    In the passion of the moment to lose self-control and act on impulse and without
    Reflection.

MANSLAUGHTER, INVOLUNTARY - In order for a person to be found guilty
    Of involuntary manslaughter the government must prove that someone was killed
    As a result of an act by the person;

    Second, in the circumstances existing at the time, the person's act either was by
    Its nature dangerous to human life or was done with reckless disregard for human
    Life; and

    Third, the person either knew that such conduct was a threat to the lives of
    Others or knew of circumstances that would reasonably cause the person to
    Foresee that such conduct might be a threat to the lives of others.

 SELF-DEFENSE - A defense to certain criminal charges involving force (e.g. murder).

    Use of force is justified when a person reasonably believes that it is necessary
    for the defense of oneself or another against the immediate use of unlawful
    force. However, a person must use no more force than appears reasonably
    necessary in the circumstances.

    Force likely to cause death or great bodily harm is justified in self-defense only if
    a person reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or
    great bodily harm.

    The Right To Protect One's Person And Property From Injury.

    It will be proper to consider: 1. The extent of the right of self-defence. 2. By
    whom it may be exercised. 3. Against whom. 4. For what causes.

    As to the extent of the right: First, when threatened violence exists, it is the duty
    of the person threatened to use all prudent and precautionary measures to
    prevent the attack;…  Secondly, if after having
    taken such proper precautions, a party should be assailed, he may undoubtedly
    repel force by force, but in most instances cannot, under the pretext that he has
    been attacked, use force enough to kill the assailant or hurt him after he has
    secured himself from danger;…. For homicide may be excused where a man has no other
    probable means of preserving his life from one who attacks him while in the
    commission of a felony, or even on a sudden quarrel he beats him, so that he is
    reduced to this inevitable necessity. And the reason is that when so reduced, he
    cannot call to his aid the power of society or of the commonwealth, and being
    unprotected by law, he reassumes his natural rights which the law sanctions, of
    killing his adversary to protect himself.

    The party attacked may undoubtedly defend himself, and the law further
    sanctions the mutual and reciprocal defence of such as stand in the near relations
    of hushand and wife, patent and child, and master and servant. In these cases, if
    the party himself or any of these his relations, be forcibly attacked in their
    person or property, it is lawful for him to repel force by force, for the law in
    these cases respects the passions of the human mind, and makes it lawful in him,
    when external violence is offered to himself, or to those to whom he bears so
    near a connexion, to do that immediate justice to which he is prompted by nature,
    and which no prudential motives are strong enough to restrain.

    The party making the attack may be resisted, and if several persons join in such
    attack they may all be resisted, and one may be killed although he may not
    himself have given the immediate cause for such killing, if by his presence and his
    acts he has aided the assailant.

    The cases for which a man may defend himself are of two kinds; first, when a
    felony is attempted, and secondly, when no felony is attempted or apprehended.

    1st. A man may defend himself and even commit a homicide for the prevention of
    any forcible and atrocious crime, which if completed would amount to a felony;
    and of course under the like circumstances, mayhem, wounding and battery
    would be excusable at common law. A man may repel force by force in defence of
    his person, property or habitation, against any one who manifests, intends,
    attempts, or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a forcible felony, such
    as murder, rape, robbery, arson, burglary and the like. In these cases he is not
    required to retreat, but he may resist and even pursue his adversary, until he has
    secured himself from all danger.

    2d. A man may defend himself when no felony has been threatened or attempted:
    1. When the assailant attempts to beat another and there is no mutual combat,
    such as where one meets another and attempts to commit or does commit an
    assault and battery on him, the person attacked may defend himself, and; 2. An
    attempt to strike another, when sufficiently near so that that there is danger, the
    person assailed may strike first, and is not required to wait until he has been
    struck.

    When there is a mutual combat upon a sudden quarrel both parties are the
    aggressors, and if in the fight one is killed it will be manslaughter at least, unless
    the survivor can prove two things: 1st. That before the mortal stroke was given
    be had refused any further combat, and had retreated as far as he could with
    safety; and 2d. That he killed his adversary from necessity, to avoid his own
    destruction.

    A man may defend himself against animals, and he may during the attack kill
    them, but not afterwards.

    As a general rule no man is allowed to defend himself with force if he can apply
    to the law for redress, and the law gives him a complete remedy.

ACCIDENT - The happening of an event without the concurrence of the will of
    the person by whose agency it was caused or the happening of an event without
    any human agency; the burning of a house in consequence of a fire being made
    for the ordinary purpose of warming the house which is an accident of the first
    kind; the burning of the same house by lightning would have been an accident of
    the second kind…