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In Massachusetts, first degree murder is defined as premeditated or deliberate killing by someone with malice aforethought. This means that the person accused of murder acted deliberately, planning in advance and considering their actions as they committed the crime.
But in 1972, the court held that while the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous jury verdicts for federal criminal trials, such verdicts are not required for state trials. Only two states allowed non-unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases, Oregon and Louisiana, and Louisiana changed its law effective January 1, 2019.
First-degree murder is the most serious of all homicide offenses. It involves any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated with malice aforethought. Premeditation requires that the defendant planned the murder before it was committed or was ?lying in wait? for the victim.
However, if a person is to be convicted of first degree murder, all jurors must agree upon the degree of murder as first degree, People v. Milan (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 185, 195. Consequently, the conviction for first degree murder was reversed and the case remanded to the trial court for a new trial.
To return a valid verdict in criminal trials, jurors must reach a unanimous verdict. In civil trials, agreement of just five sixths of the jurors is sufficient to reach a valid verdict.
For criminal trials, nearly every state requires the jury to produce a unanimous verdict. For civil trials, almost one-third of states only require a majority for a verdict. Some states require a majority if the money at issue in the trial is below a certain amount, and a unanimous verdict all other times.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-23-2 Every person guilty of murder in the first degree shall be imprisoned for life. Every person guilty of murder in the second degree shall be imprisoned for not less than ten (10) years and may be imprisoned for life.
Currently as there is no death penalty in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, the crime of first degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.