Motor Vehicle Homicide

Massachusetts General Law chapter 90 § 24G:
Felony Motor Vehicle Homicide:
(1) Operation of
(2) a motor vehicle
(3) upon a public way or place to which the public has a right of access or access as invitees or licensees
(4) (a) while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or other specified drugs; and
(b) recklessly or negligently so that the lives or safety of the public might be endangered, and
(5) thereby causing the death of another person.
Misdemeanor Motor Vehicle Homicide:
(1) Operation of
(2) a motor vehicle
(3) upon a public way or place to which the public has a right of access or access as invitees or licensees
(4) (a) while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or specified drugs; or
(b) recklessly or negligently so that the lives or safety of the public might be endangered, and
(5) thereby causing the death of another person.

The statute setting forth the offense of motor vehicle homicide describes three separate offenses, one felony and two misdemeanors. The felony charge requires operation of a motor vehicle on a public way while under the influence of an intoxicating substance and operating recklessly or negligently, causing the death of another. The misdemeanors require either the operating of a motor vehicle on a public way while under the influence of an intoxicating substance, causing the death of another, or the operation of a motor vehicle on a public way recklessly or negligently, causing the death of another.

Lawmakers designed the offense of motor vehicle homicide to create an intermediate crime for motor vehicle deaths between the misdemeanor of operating so as to endanger and the felony of involuntary manslaughter. While a prosecutor can charge and a jury or judge can convict a defendant of both motor vehicle homicide and involuntary manslaughter based on reckless operation of a motor vehicle, the defendant may be punished only for the more serious crime of manslaughter. Similarly, when a defendant is charged with and convicted of both motor vehicle homicide and operating under the influence and/or driving so as to endanger, the judge should set aside the conviction under the lesser offenses as surplusage.

When operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor is an element of the offense, the prosecution has the burden of proving that the defendant's consumption of alcohol diminished his capacity to operate a motor vehicle safely. This applies both in the case of the felony of operating under the influence and operating recklessly or negligently and thereby causing the death of a person, or of the misdemeanor of operating under the influence and thereby causing a death. The negligence embodied in both the felony and misdemeanor charges represents ordinary negligence as used in the law of torts. Since a finding of negligent operation suffices, the element of operating "recklessly" as specified in the statute is of little significance and serves as little more than surplusage.

Unlike civil cases involving negligent operation of motor vehicles, the criminal charge does not allow the use of contributory negligence on the part of the victim as a defense to a charge of motor vehicle homicide. If the victim's negligence, however, was the sole cause of the accident, logically the defendant could not have negligently operated his vehicle so as to cause the accident. Accordingly, the jury is entitled to consider the victim's conduct in determining whether the defendant operated negligently and whether his negligence caused the victim's death.

When a defendant is convicted of motor vehicle homicide, either the felony or the misdemeanor, his driver's license is revoked for a period of ten years; upon a subsequent conviction, it is revoked for life.

The maximum sentence for the felony charge of motor vehicle homicide is imprisonment for two and one-half to fifteen years and a fine of up to $5,000, with a mandatory, minimum term of imprisonment for one year. The maximum sentence for the misdemeanor charge of vehicle homicide is imprisonment for thirty days to two and one-half years or a fine of $300 to $3,000, or both.

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