Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

The second-degree murder statute, T.C.A. 39-13-210, defines second-degree murder as follows:

(1) A knowing killing of another; or

(2) A killing of another that results from the unlawful distribution of any Schedule I or Schedule II drug, when the drug is the proximate cause of the death of the user.

"Knowing" in Tennessee has been very confusingly defined in the following way:

[...] a person acts knowingly with respect to the conduct or to circumstances surrounding the conduct when the person is aware of the nature of the conduct or that the circumstances exist. A person acts knowingly with respect to a result of the person's conduct when the person is aware that the conduct is reasonably certain to cause the result.

Basically, then, it can be said that a person can be charged with second-degree murder when that person knows that his conduct is reasonably certain to cause the death of another. While this requirement would seem to require a degree of certainty on the part of the defendant in a second-degree murder trial, this definition has been interpreted more loosely by the courts who have allowed convictions of defendants who engaged in conduct which would be more accurately described as potentially or likely dangerous rather than reasonably certain to cause the death of an individual. For this reason, it is essential that any defendant in a murder trial acquire skilled criminal defense representation who will fight for that defendant's right to make the prosecution prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.

While the form of second-degree murder discussed in this blog is the most common form of second-degree murder charged in Tennessee cases, other forms exist and will be discussed in future blog posts on this site.