Legal analysis
Being beaten and hacked to death with a knife may constitute intentional homicide or excessive defense. The object of the crime of intentional homicide is the right to life of others. Legal life refers to a living body that can breathe and metabolize independently, which is the premise of human existence. First of all, there must be acts of depriving others of their lives, which can be composed of actions and omissions. The crime of manslaughter by omission can only be constituted by people who have a specific obligation to prevent others from dying. Secondly, the act of depriving others of their lives must be illegal, that is, it violates the laws of the country. Execution of the death penalty, self-defense and emergency avoidance do not constitute the crime of intentional homicide (because emergency avoidance does not constitute the crime of intentional homicide in rare cases, and it is usually necessary to avoid danger and perform meritorious service before it may not constitute a crime). The act of depriving the victim of his life with his consent also constitutes intentional homicide. The so-called "euthanasia" should still be punished as intentional homicide. Of course, a lighter or mitigated punishment can be applied when sentencing. Excessive defense refers to a criminal act in which the defensive behavior obviously exceeds the necessary limit and causes great damage, and refers to a situation in which the legitimate defensive behavior exceeds the defense standard stipulated by law and therefore should bear criminal responsibility. Defenders defend themselves or others' personal rights from ongoing illegal infringement and stop illegal infringement. Its purpose is to fight back and stop the illegal infringement being carried out, which is a prerequisite for excessive defense. In fact, excessive defense meets the first four conditions of legitimate defense, but it does not meet the fifth condition. Excessive defense should meet the first four conditions of justifiable defense, namely, the most basic preconditions, time conditions, object conditions and subjective conditions of justifiable defense. Without any of these four conditions, it is impossible to establish excessive defense, but other illegal and criminal acts, such as provoking troubles, imaginary defense, improper defense, and defending a third party, cannot be established. These defenses have no subjective and objective basis for justifiable defense, and they are illegal acts in themselves, which constitute a crime and should be convicted and punished according to the charges stipulated in relevant laws.
legal ground
Criminal law of the people's Republic of China
Article 20 In order to protect the state, public interests, the person, property and other rights of oneself or others from ongoing unlawful infringement, stopping the unlawful infringement and causing damage to the unlawful infringer, it is justifiable defense and does not bear criminal responsibility. If justifiable defense obviously exceeds the necessary limit and causes great damage, criminal responsibility shall be borne, but the punishment shall be mitigated or exempted. Taking defensive actions against violent crimes such as assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, etc., which seriously endanger personal safety, and causing casualties of illegal infringers, is not excessive defense and does not bear criminal responsibility.
Article 232 Whoever intentionally kills shall be sentenced to death, life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years; If the circumstances are relatively minor, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years.