Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review Chapter 8 in the textbook, the article Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Criminality: How Long Must We Live Before We Possess Our Ow

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8Homicide

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Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter, you should be able to

• Explain the availability heuristic and its impact on understanding homicide.

• Differentiate between the categories of homicide.

• Differentiate between serial, mass, and spree murderers.

• Describe the types of family violence that could end in homicide.

• Analyze the demographics of homicide.

• Analyze the extent to which homicide offenders may recidivate.

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144

Section 8.1 Introduction

Introductory Case Study: Jessica Colpitts In Orofina, Idaho, in May 2017, Samantha Fignani suffered a fatal gunshot wound in her home. She was just 23 years old. Her family, including her two young daughters, were devastated and hoped for swift justice. The police took only 2 days to locate Fignani’s killer, a woman named Jes- sica Colpitts. According to police, Colpitts became enraged when her boyfriend, Joseph Walker, admitted that he had been romantically involved with Fignani behind Colpitts’s back.

The police had an eyewitness to the shooting, along with jail telephone call recordings of conver- sations between Walker and Colpitts about Walker’s affair with Fignani. Not too long after the jail telephone call, Colpitts enlisted the assistance of her friend, Cassie Madsen, to confront Fig- nani about the affair. Colpitts’s car was spotted on video driving toward Fignani’s home. Madsen denied knowing that Colpitts would actually kill Fignani during the confrontation. Colpitts had never been violent before and had never expressed a desire to harm anyone.

However, Colpitts fatally shot Fignani with a shotgun and then laughed as she and Madsen fled the scene. At trial, Madsen testified that she was stunned that anyone could be so cold as to laugh about having just shot someone to death in front of the victim’s children. Colpitts’s defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that Madsen was the killer because there had been a fallout between Madsen and Fignani over drugs. (Fignani was dealing methamphetamine and would no longer sell to Madsen.) However, the jury rejected that argument and voted unanimously to convict Jessica Colpitts of first-degree murder for killing Samantha Fignani.

As you read this chapter, consider the following questions regarding this case:

1. Why is homicide considered one of the most fascinating—and arguably the most chal- lenging—issues in the psychological study of crime?

2. Do you think that Colpitts’s socioeconomic status and other situational factors led to her committing murder?

3. A love triangle ending in murder might sound familiar. Do you think that homicides are prevalent in today’s culture?

8.1 Introduction Homicide may seem as though it is highly prevalent in our culture. True crime episodes of Dateline and 48 Hours, other documentaries focused on homicide cases, and a number of fic- tional television shows and movies that glamorize murder and murderers seem to support the belief that homicide is a frequently occurring crime. However, the data does not support that notion. It’s important to understand the psychological foundation of our perceptions of homicide frequency and the individuals who commit such violent acts, as well as the types of homicides and associated variables.

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145

Section 8.2 Availability Heuristic

Though it may seem that individuals who commit homicide must be mentally ill, you may recall from Chapter 2 that most individuals who suffer from serious mental illness are signifi- cantly more likely to be victimized than they are to perpetrate a crime. Perpetrators of homi- cide, for the most part, tend to appear outwardly normal. Recall Jessica Colpitts’s case from the beginning of the chapter. It seems that she was fueled by jealousy and perhaps an inability to control her impulses, despite a lack of any prior evidence that she was capable of such vio- lence. In some other cases, murderers epitomize psychopaths in that they are cool, calm, and calculated. Perhaps you are wondering how it is possible that seemingly normal individuals are capable of perpetrating such brutal acts of violence, including taking another’s life. This is a question for which there may be no precise or satisfactory response; however, this chapter will examine some common features of individuals who kill.

The reality is that most homicide victims are killed by people who are known to them, and in many cases the murderous violence was shockingly unpredictable. It may be rather unset- tling to grasp that we cannot always predict with precision who will become homicidal or when homicidal behavior will occur, but we will examine the tendencies and variables that may lead up to these criminal acts.

8.2 Availability Heuristic Given that there is so much news coverage of murder and homicide, it may lead us to assume that murders are frequently occurring events. The truth is that homicides are rare. In 2017, there were approximately 17,200 homicides in the United States. This may sound like a lot of victims—and it is—but when considering this number out of the 1.2 million total violent crimes reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, it is a small proportion of the violent crime category. Specifically, only 1.4% of all violent crimes in 2017 were homicides (FBI, 2018). This rate represents a slight decrease of approximately 0.7% from 2016 but also shows a significant increase of approximately 17% from 2013, when there were an estimated 14,200 homicides in the United States. This means that homicides have increased over time.

Interestingly, where you live may determine whether you perceive that homicide is a fre- quently occurring crime. This is based on a social psychology concept called the availability heuristic. The availability heuristic refers to the likelihood that individuals overestimate the prevalence of certain events based on how easily these events come to mind. For example, the UCR shows that nearly half of all murders in the United States in 2017 were committed in the South (see Table 8.1). Therefore, in southern states, the news media frequently reports stories of homicides, given that the majority of murders occur in that part of the country. The availability heuristic predicts that individuals who live in the South will be more prone to overestimate the prevalence of homicides than individuals in the Northeast, where the homi- cide rate is much lower.

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146

Section 8.3 Categories, Definitions, and Statistics of Homicide

Table 8.1: Offense and population percentage distribution by U.S. region, 2017

Region U.S. total* Northeast Midwest South West

Population 100.0 17.3 20.9 38.0 23.8

Violent crime 100.0 13.4 20.2 40.8 25.5

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter

100.0 11.3 22.6 45.9 20.2

Rape 100.0 12.4 24.6 37.0 26.0

Robbery 100.0 15.3 19.1 38.0 27.7

Aggravated assault 100.0 12.9 19.9 42.5 24.7

Property crime 100.0 11.4 19.6 41.9 27.0

Burglary 100.0 9.1 19.6 44.9 26.3

Larceny-theft 100.0 12.6 19.8 42.1 25.5

Motor vehicle theft 100.0 7.3 17.8 35.5 39.4

*Because of rounding, the percentages may not add up to 100.0.

Note. Sufficient data are not available to estimate totals for arson. Therefore, no arson data are published in this table.

Source: “Table 3: Crime in the United States,” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2018 (https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s /2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-3/table-3.xls#overview).

8.3 Categories, Definitions, and Statistics of Homicide The concept of murder is commonly understood, but Black’s Law Dictionary (Garner, 2014) has a substantive and technical definition of murder that includes a clear psychological component—the ability to form intent to commit murder. In criminal law, intent refers to the subjective state of mind in which the perpetrator makes “a decision to bring about a prohibited consequence” (R. v. Mohan, 1994). Specifically, the definition includes language referring to the perpetrator’s mental state, such as “of sound mind and discretion,” and “deliberate action” (Garner, 2014, p. 1170) to describe the perpetrator’s goal of causing life- ending harm to the victim. The existence of these psychological and behavioral elements are components of determining whether the murder constitutes criminal homicide, mur- der that contains the element of intent to cause the death of another and is considered neither excusable nor justifiable, such as in Jessica Colpitts’s case.

The legal system further classifies criminal homicide into subtypes of murder, generally bro- ken down into “degrees,” such as first-, second-, and third-degree murder (or manslaughter). These subtypes are related to the perpetrator’s mental state and are influenced by the per- ceived heinousness of the murder. The classification system used by authorities to catego- rize types of homicides and perpetrators is in place for the purpose of record keeping and reporting. This facilitates ease of research in terms of analyzing whether there is something

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147

Section 8.3 Categories, Definitions, and Statistics of Homicide

fundamentally different from a behavioral and psychological perspective between individu- als who, for example, commit first- or third-degree murder or between serial killers and mass murderers.

First-Degree Murder First-degree murder, also known as premeditated murder, refers to the unlawful killing of another that must have the intentional element of malice aforethought (Garner, 2014). Mal- ice aforethought refers to the intent to cause significant harm to another. Premeditation refers to planning, but it does not necessarily require a significant amount of time to form a plan. Premeditation can occur in an instant, according to the law in most states. The serious- ness of first-degree murder is such that the punishment may be as serious as the death pen- alty or life in prison, depending on the jurisdiction in which the murder took place. In the case study at the beginning of the chapter, Jessica Colpitts was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Samantha Fignani. The jury found that Colpitts willfully, and with malice afore- thought, intended to cause Fignani harm by ending her life with the shotgun she brought to Fignani’s home when Colpitts confronted her about the affair.

One type of first-degree murder is felony homicide. Felony homicide, or a homicide that occurs during the commission of another felony, occurs as a form of instrumental aggression. You will recall from Chapter 6 that instrumental aggression is “cool” aggression and occurs as a means to an end. In felony homicide, the central goal of the perpetrator is typically to obtain criminally some reward, such as cash, objects, or other desired goods possessed by another person. The violent behavior is a means to obtain that goal. In the context of law, felony homi- cide is generally conceptualized as premeditated, first-degree murder.

Second-Degree Murder Second-degree murder is commonly thought of as “depraved heart/mind” murder. The legal definition used in most states for second-degree murder reveals the mental state underly- ing and driving the deadly form of human behavior with the use of words such as “depraved mind,” “depraved heart,” and “reckless disregard” for the life of another. Though very serious because it is an intentional killing, it lacks the first-degree murder element of premeditation (Garner, 2014). Second-degree murder is punishable by life in prison in many jurisdictions, but the judge may opt to sentence the perpetrator to a term of years instead of a life sentence.

One type of second-degree murder is altercation homicide. Altercation homicide occurs as a result of hostile aggression. Recall from Chapter 6 that hostile aggression is “hot” aggres- sion—that is, an impulsive reaction motivated by anger in response to the actual or perceived aggressive behavior of the provocateur. The underlying motivation behind hostile aggression is to cause harm, including homicide. In the context of the law, altercation homicide can best be conceptualized as “heat of passion,” second-degree murder.

See Case Study: Josiah Hadley to read about how homicide charges take into consideration the psychological functioning leading up to and at the time of the crime.

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148

Section 8.3 Categories, Definitions, and Statistics of Homicide

Third-Degree Murder Third-degree murder, more commonly known as manslaughter, is defined as an unin- tentional yet criminal homicide that lacks malice and premeditation (Garner, 2014). Man- slaughter is a very serious crime because human life is lost as the direct result of the unlawful behavior of another. However, in manslaughter the perpetrator has significantly less culpabil- ity than in first- or second-degree murder.

Manslaughter has two major categories: voluntary manslaughter and involuntary man- slaughter.

Voluntary Manslaughter Voluntary manslaughter is a “heat of passion” murder that lacks intent to commit murder (Garner, 2014). The most commonly used example of voluntary manslaughter is that of a spouse who arrives home unexpectedly to find the other spouse having an affair and “in the heat of passion” murders the spouse and/or the paramour.

The “heat of passion” may also be present in non–love triangle cases, such as that of Diana Lalchan, who shot her controlling and abusive husband, Christopher, in the back of the head during a verbal argument. Diana feared that her husband was planning to kill her based on the years of abuse she suffered. The state’s position was—and the jury agreed—that this was not a case of self-defense. Christopher was not physically harming Diana at the time of the shooting, and thus there was no imminent danger to her at that time. However, the years of abuse influenced Diana’s perception that she was in danger, causing her to shoot Christopher. The jury agreed that Diana had been abused by Christopher previously, yet they judged her reaction at the time of his death as “extreme.” The jury found Diana guilty of voluntary man- slaughter. That is, they found that in the “heat of the moment,” Diana killed her husband to protect herself without malicious intent to cause him harm.

Case Study: Josiah Hadley Griselle Martinez was just 22 years old when she was killed by her boyfriend, 24-year-old Josiah Hadley. Martinez and Hadley were out with friends when they began arguing. The cou- ple returned home, and as the evening wore on, the argument escalated to a physical alterca- tion. A friend who was at their apartment when the physical altercation took place told police that he saw Hadley over Martinez’s body, punching her. Hadley and his friends rushed Marti- nez to the hospital, where she died.

Hadley, his parents, and Martinez’s family were grief stricken. This was not something they ever imagined was possible, given that Hadley was described by everyone who knew him as a kind, caring, deeply religious, and responsible young man. Nevertheless, at trial the jury found that Hadley killed Martinez with a depraved mind (i.e., showing no regard for human life; second-degree murder). The jury believed that as the argument continued for hours, Hadley became angry and lost his ability to control his own behavior.

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149

Section 8.3 Categories, Definitions, and Statistics of Homicide

Involuntary Manslaughter Involuntary manslaughter is an accidental murder that occurs during the commission of an illegal act (Garner, 2014). To understand involuntary manslaughter, let’s explore the case of Michigan state trooper Mark Bessner, whose actions led to the death of teenager Damon Grimes. Bessner, in the passenger seat of his patrol vehicle while another officer was driving, was in pursuit of Grimes, who was riding on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Bessner shot Grimes with a Taser, leading Grimes to crash the vehicle and subsequently die. The state asserted that Bessner shot Grimes knowing that the Taser would render Grimes unable to maintain control of the ATV, thus potentially leading to serious bodily harm, including death. The jury was able to consider that Bessner had previously improperly used his Taser on a handcuffed man in another case, which was a serious violation of police department policy. Bessner had been disciplined by the police department for that incident.

In this case, the jury found that Bessner did not intend to kill Grimes but that his habit of using his Taser unlawfully led directly to the death of Grimes. They rendered a verdict of guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Determining Mental State The key element that distinguishes between the four major legal categories of murder we have covered so far is the perpetrator’s psychological or mental state at the time just prior to, during, and sometimes even after the commission of a homicide. It is important to under- stand that in the criminal justice system, each victim is considered a distinct and separate count of murder, regardless of the type of murder the state charges. In other words, regard- less of the total number of victims a perpetrator murders, each of those victims is treated as an individual crime. Thus, if the perpetrator’s mental state varies such that malice, premedi- tation, and intent are different for each victim, then the type of murder charge will reflect that.

For example, in a convenience store robbery in which the perpetrator kills a bystander and the clerk, each victim would be treated as a separate murder count, and thus there would be two murder charges. The perpetrator may face a first-degree murder charge for planning to rob the store and kill the clerk but perhaps a second-degree murder charge for killing the bystander if the perpetrator did not plan to kill the second person at the scene.

Justifiable Homicide Not all murders are deemed criminal. Justifiable homicide, described as killing someone out of necessity, occurs because the victim perceives that he or she must defend him- or herself from certain death.

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Involuntary manslaughter, such as killing someone during a car accident, is an example of an accidental murder.

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150

Section 8.4 Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and Spree Killers

Consider the case of Ethan Gratton, who shot and killed his friend in self-defense after the friend and another man assaulted Gratton during an argument. The men punched Gratton so hard that he lost a tooth and suffered a concussion and a broken nose. In the middle of the attack, Gratton pulled his gun from his pocket and shot both men, killing his friend. The other man survived. The state prosecuted Gratton because it believed he formed the intent to kill. That is, the state’s position was that Gratton premeditated his friend’s death. The jury disagreed and acquitted Gratton at trial. Although the friend died by Gratton’s hand, the jury found that Gratton was justified in shooting the men in order to defend himself from further injury, including his own death.

8.4 Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and Spree Killers Additional murder classifications based on features of the crime scene or scenes have been identified. These are serial killers and mass murderers. Serial killers and mass murderers are generally charged with a single count of first-degree murder for each individual victim. The number of first-degree murder cases the defendant faces depends on how many victims there were in total. The distinguishing characteristic between a mass murderer and a serial killer is the elapsed time between murders.

Additionally, it is worth noting that while less than 2% of all violent crimes are homicides, serial murder is extremely rare, accounting for less than 1% of all homicides (FBI, 2008).

Serial Killer The FBI classifies a serial killer as a single perpetrator who murders three or more people on separate occasions. The temporal separation between murders is often referred to as a cooling- off period. For a historical example of a serial killer, see Case Study: Clementine Barnabet.

Case Study: Clementine Barnabet In January 1911 Louisiana authorities were notified of a horrific discovery that included three obvious homicides. There was a couple and their young son lying in bed together. Police reports stated that it was an incredibly gruesome scene in which the family of three had suffered mas- sive head injuries, leaving them barely recognizable. Also found at the scene was a bucket full of blood and a bloody ax. Newspaper reporters called the crime the most brutal they had ever seen, but it was not the last. Ax murders continued throughout 1911 and 1912 in parts of Louisiana and neighboring Texas. Police investigated several different men for the murders and eventually arrested Raymond Barnabet, who was a local sharecropper with a criminal record for relatively minor crimes.

Raymond Barnabet, by all accounts, was not a good man. He was controlling, possessive, and abusive toward his wife and two children, Clementine and Zepherin. Clementine, approximately 17 years old, was happy to talk to police about a night that her father arrived home wearing blood-soaked clothing. She told them that Raymond had threatened to kill her if she revealed this information to anyone. At trial, both Clementine and her brother testified against their father.

(continued)

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151

Section 8.4 Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and Spree Killers

Mass Murderer Mass murder occurs when there are multiple victims (at least four) in a single location, with no subsequent murder events because the murderer is typically captured or killed before he or she can do any additional harm (FBI, 2008). Perhaps the most salient type of mass murderer in recent history is that of the mass shooter.

The deadliest mass shooting in the United States to date is the Las Vegas massacre on October 1, 2017, that claimed 58 lives. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, killed himself on the scene. The Pulse Nightclub shooting perpetrated by Omar Mateen in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, claimed 49 lives and is the second most deadly mass mur- der in U.S. history to date.

However, mass murderers do not always kill dozens of people in public places. See Case Study: John List for another example of who can be considered a mass murderer.

Case Study: Clementine Barnabet (continued) However, while Raymond was in jail and his case was working its way through the legal system, another ax murder took place. Once again, the murder claimed the lives of an entire family, but because Raymond was in jail, he was effectively ruled out as the culprit. Police were already suspicious of Clementine because they had found blood on women’s clothing that was hanging in Clementine’s room when they arrested her father. Clementine asserted that her father had wiped the blood on her clothing, but police investigators could not verify that Clementine had an alibi for the evening of the most recent ax murder.

Police arrested Clementine and discovered through her confession that she had killed 35 peo- ple over approximately a one-and-a-half-year period. According to police, Clementine killed these families because she believed that doing so would give her supernatural powers. The media suggested that the murders were part of a voodoo ritual that Clementine and “many others,” who were never identified, were involved in. They also suggested that Clementine was a high priestess in a religious cult called the Church of Sacrifice. (The existence of such a church has never been confirmed.) However, it is possible that this part of the story was fab- rication based on the racial and class biases of that era, given that Clementine was an African American woman in the Deep South during a time in history when African Americans’ rights were limited through use of curfews, segregation, and other restrictions under the doctrine that deemed African Americans “separate but equal.” The media may have been creating sto- ries that took advantage of Clementine.

In Clementine’s case, she murdered entire families (multiple victims) at each crime scene, and she was classified as a serial killer because there was a temporal separation between each set of murders. That is, Clementine murdered, then some time passed, then she murdered again, and so on until she was arrested.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/Associated Press

The interior of Stephen Paddock’s room at Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Paddock fired on attendees of a nearby music festival.

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152

Section 8.4 Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and Spree Killers

Spree Killer Though the FBI murder classification system no longer uses the term spree killer, the media sometimes still refers to these types of killers, which is why we’re discussing it here. Spree killer was defined as someone who murders multiple people over a short time period but in different geographic locations with no cooling-off period between murders. However, the FBI received much criticism about the arbitrary definition of a cooling-off period (FBI, 2008). Therefore, the FBI stopped using the term in 2005, deciding that spree killers were actually serial killers whose murders may occur with little to no break between them.

To help explain why there was the third category in the first place, the example of Dwight Lamon Jones may be helpful. In 2018 Jones went on a murderous rampage, killing six victims in three Arizona cities over a 5-day period before killing himself. All the victims were profes- sionals who were either directly or indirectly involved in Jones’s divorce proceedings years earlier. It is important to note that, even though prior to 2005 he would have been considered a spree killer, in the context of the current FBI murder classification typology, Jones’s category is serial killer because his homicides took place over a short time period.

Case Study: John List In 1971 New Jersey accountant John List shot and killed his family of five, including his wife, a teenage daughter, two teenage sons, and his own mother. It was weeks before neighbors became concerned that they had not seen anyone entering or leaving the home and reported it to police. When police entered the home, they heard loud organ music playing over the home’s intercom system. In addition to discovering the five victims in the home, police also discovered a five-page letter that List wrote to his pastor stating that he perpetrated the murders because he “had seen too much evil in the world” and wanted to save the souls of his family members.

Between the murders and the police entering the home, List changed his identity to avoid being found. He changed his name to Robert Clark and started a new life in Virginia, where he lived quietly for approximately 18 years. In 1989 the FBI broadcast List’s case on a television show called America’s Most Wanted, asking for the public’s assistance in locating John List. A woman in Virginia called the tip line and reported that her neighbor, Robert Clark, looked remarkably similar to the age-progressed image shown to viewers.

Thanks to the tip, the FBI finally captured List, who was working as an accountant, had remar- ried, and was active in his local church. At trial, the jury found List guilty of five counts of murder, and he received five separate life sentences, one for each of the victims. List later stated that he killed his family instead of himself because he feared that suicide would prevent him from going to Heaven, where he was hoping to be reunited with the family members he murdered.

Although List fatally shot his victims and this is the mode of death in many all-too-familiar mass murder cases, he carr

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