Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being:

      1.  With malice aforethought, either express or implied;

      2.  Caused by a controlled substance which was sold, given, traded or otherwise made available to a person in violation of chapter 453 of NRS; or

      3.  Caused by a violation of NRS 453.3325.

 ->   The unlawful killing may be effected by any of the various means by which death may be occasioned.

      1.  Express malice is that deliberate intention unlawfully to take away the life of a fellow creature, which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof.

      2.  Malice shall be implied when no considerable provocation appears, or when all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.

      1.  Murder of the first degree is murder which is:

            (a) Perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait or torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing;

            (b) Committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, robbery, burglary, invasion of the home, sexual abuse of a child, sexual molestation of a child under the age of 14 years, child abuse or abuse of an older person or vulnerable person pursuant to NRS 200.5099;

            (c) Committed to avoid or prevent the lawful arrest of any person by a peace officer or to effect the escape of any person from legal custody;

            (d) Committed on the property of a public or private school, at an activity sponsored by a public or private school or on a school bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by a person who intended to create a great risk of death or substantial bodily harm to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person; or

            (e) Committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an act of terrorism.

      2.  Murder of the second degree is all other kinds of murder.

      3.  The jury before whom any person indicted for murder is tried shall, if they find the person guilty thereof, designate by their verdict whether the person is guilty of murder of the first or second degree.

      4.  A person convicted of murder of the first degree is guilty of a category A felony and shall be punished:

            (a) By death, only if one or more aggravating circumstances are found and any mitigating circumstance or circumstances which are found do not outweigh the aggravating circumstance or circumstances, unless a court has made a finding pursuant to NRS 174.098 that the defendant is a person with an intellectual disability and has stricken the notice of intent to seek the death penalty; or

            (b) By imprisonment in the state prison:

                  (1) For life without the possibility of parole;

                  (2) For life with the possibility of parole, with eligibility for parole beginning when a minimum of 20 years has been served; or

                  (3) For a definite term of 50 years, with eligibility for parole beginning when a minimum of 20 years has been served.

  ->   A determination of whether aggravating circumstances exist is not necessary to fix the penalty at imprisonment for life with or without the possibility of parole.

      5.  A person convicted of murder of the second degree is guilty of a category A felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison:

            (a) For life with the possibility of parole, with eligibility for parole beginning when a minimum of 10 years has been served; or

            (b) For a definite term of 25 years, with eligibility for parole beginning when a minimum of 10 years has been served.

      6.  As used in this section:

            (a) “Act of terrorism” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 202.4415;

            (b) “Child abuse” means physical injury of a nonaccidental nature to a child under the age of 18 years;

            (c) “School bus” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 483.160;

            (d) “Sexual abuse of a child” means any of the acts described in NRS 432B.100; and

            (e) “Sexual molestation” means any willful and lewd or lascivious act, other than acts constituting the crime of sexual assault, upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a child under the age of 14 years, with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions or sexual desires of the perpetrator or of the child.

The only circumstances by which murder of the first degree may be aggravated are:

      1.  The murder was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment.

      2.  The murder was committed by a person who, at any time before a penalty hearing is conducted for the murder pursuant to NRS 175.552, is or has been convicted of:

            (a) Another murder and the provisions of subsection 12 do not otherwise apply to that other murder; or

            (b) A felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person of another and the provisions of subsection 4 do not otherwise apply to that felony.

  ->   For the purposes of this subsection, a person shall be deemed to have been convicted at the time the jury verdict of guilt is rendered or upon pronouncement of guilt by a judge or judges sitting without a jury.

      3.  The murder was committed by a person who knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.

      4.  The murder was committed while the person was engaged, alone or with others, in the commission of, or an attempt to commit or flight after committing or attempting to commit, any robbery, arson in the first degree, burglary, invasion of the home or kidnapping in the first degree, and the person charged:

            (a) Killed or attempted to kill the person murdered; or

            (b) Knew or had reason to know that life would be taken or lethal force used.

      5.  The murder was committed to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest or to effect an escape from custody.

      6.  The murder was committed by a person, for himself or herself or another, to receive money or any other thing of monetary value.

      7.  The murder was committed upon a peace officer or firefighter who was killed while engaged in the performance of his or her official duty or because of an act performed in his or her official capacity, and the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the victim was a peace officer or firefighter. For the purposes of this subsection, “peace officer” means:

            (a) An employee of the Department of Corrections who does not exercise general control over offenders imprisoned within the institutions and facilities of the Department, but whose normal duties require the employee to come into contact with those offenders when carrying out the duties prescribed by the Director of the Department.

            (b) Any person upon whom some or all of the powers of a peace officer are conferred pursuant to NRS 289.150 to 289.360, inclusive, when carrying out those powers.

      8.  The murder involved torture or the mutilation of the victim.

      9.  The murder was committed upon one or more persons at random and without apparent motive.

      10.  The murder was committed upon a person less than 14 years of age.

      11.  The murder was committed upon a person because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of that person.

      12.  The defendant has, in the immediate proceeding, been convicted of more than one offense of murder in the first or second degree. For the purposes of this subsection, a person shall be deemed to have been convicted of a murder at the time the jury verdict of guilt is rendered or upon pronouncement of guilt by a judge or judges sitting without a jury.

      13.  The person, alone or with others, subjected or attempted to subject the victim of the murder to nonconsensual sexual penetration immediately before, during or immediately after the commission of the murder. For the purposes of this subsection:

            (a) “Nonconsensual” means against the victim’s will or under conditions in which the person knows or reasonably should know that the victim is mentally or physically incapable of resisting, consenting or understanding the nature of his or her conduct, including, but not limited to, conditions in which the person knows or reasonably should know that the victim is dead.

            (b) “Sexual penetration” means cunnilingus, fellatio or any intrusion, however slight, of any part of the victim’s body or any object manipulated or inserted by a person, alone or with others, into the genital or anal openings of the body of the victim, whether or not the victim is alive. The term includes, but is not limited to, anal intercourse and sexual intercourse in what would be its ordinary meaning.

      14.  The murder was committed on the property of a public or private school, at an activity sponsored by a public or private school or on a school bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by a person who intended to create a great risk of death or substantial bodily harm to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person. For the purposes of this subsection, “school bus” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 483.160.

      15.  The murder was committed with the intent to commit, cause, aid, further or conceal an act of terrorism. For the purposes of this subsection, “act of terrorism” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 202.4415.

Murder of the first degree may be mitigated by any of the following circumstances, even though the mitigating circumstance is not sufficient to constitute a defense or reduce the degree of the crime:

      1.  The defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity.

      2.  The murder was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance.

      3.  The victim was a participant in the defendant’s criminal conduct or consented to the act.

      4.  The defendant was an accomplice in a murder committed by another person and the defendant’s participation in the murder was relatively minor.

      5.  The defendant acted under duress or under the domination of another person.

      6.  The youth of the defendant at the time of the crime.

      7.  Any other mitigating circumstance.

      1.  Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being, without malice express or implied, and without any mixture of deliberation.

      2.  Manslaughter must be voluntary, upon a sudden heat of passion, caused by a provocation apparently sufficient to make the passion irresistible, or involuntary, in the commission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act without due caution or circumspection.

      3.  Manslaughter does not include vehicular manslaughter as described in NRS 484B.657.

      1.  In cases of voluntary manslaughter, there must be a serious and highly provoking injury inflicted upon the person killing, sufficient to excite an irresistible passion in a reasonable person, or an attempt by the person killed to commit a serious personal injury on the person killing.

      2.  Voluntary manslaughter does not include vehicular manslaughter as described in NRS 484B.657.

The killing must be the result of that sudden, violent impulse of passion supposed to be irresistible; for, if there should appear to have been an interval between the assault or provocation given and the killing, sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, the killing shall be attributed to deliberate revenge and punished as murder.

      1.  Except under the circumstances provided in NRS 484B.550 and 484B.653, involuntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being, without any intent to do so, in the commission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act which probably might produce such a consequence in an unlawful manner, but where the involuntary killing occurs in the commission of an unlawful act, which, in its consequences, naturally tends to destroy the life of a human being, or is committed in the prosecution of a felonious intent, the offense is murder.

      2.  Involuntary manslaughter does not include vehicular manslaughter as described in NRS 484B.657.

A person convicted of the crime of voluntary manslaughter is guilty of a category B felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 10 years, and may be further punished by a fine of not more than $10,000.

A person convicted of involuntary manslaughter is guilty of a category D felony and shall be punished as provided in NRS 193.130.

      1.  If the injury be inflicted in one county, and the party die within another county, or without the State, the accused shall be tried in the county where the act was done, or the cause of death administered.

      2.  If the party killing shall be in one county, and the party killed in another county, at the time the cause of death shall be administered, the accused may be tried in either county.

      1.  Justifiable homicide is the killing of a human being in necessary self-defense, or in defense of an occupied habitation, an occupied motor vehicle or a person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors to commit a crime of violence, or against any person or persons who manifestly intend and endeavor, in a violent, riotous, tumultuous or surreptitious manner, to enter the occupied habitation or occupied motor vehicle, of another for the purpose of assaulting or offering personal violence to any person dwelling or being therein.

      2.  A person is not required to retreat before using deadly force as provided in subsection 1 if the person:

            (a) Is not the original aggressor;

            (b) Has a right to be present at the location where deadly force is used; and

            (c) Is not actively engaged in conduct in furtherance of criminal activity at the time deadly force is used.

      3.  As used in this section:

            (a) “Crime of violence” means any felony for which there is a substantial risk that force or violence may be used against the person or property of another in the commission of the felony.

            (b) “Motor vehicle” means every vehicle which is self-propelled.

      1.  A bare fear of any of the offenses mentioned in NRS 200.120, to prevent which the homicide is alleged to have been committed, is not sufficient to justify the killing. It must appear that the circumstances were sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable person and that the person killing really acted under the influence of those fears and not in a spirit of revenge.

      2.  There is a rebuttable presumption that the circumstances were sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable person and that the person killing really acted under the influence of those fears and not in a spirit of revenge if the person killing:

            (a) Knew or reasonably believed that the person who was killed was entering unlawfully and with force, or attempting to enter unlawfully and with force, the occupied habitation or occupied motor vehicle, of another;

            (b) Knew or reasonably believed that the person who was killed was committing or attempting to commit a crime of violence; and

            (c) Did not provoke the person who was killed.

      3.  As used in this section:

            (a) “Crime of violence” means any felony for which there is a substantial risk that force or violence may be used against the person or property of another in the commission of the felony.

            (b) “Motor vehicle” means every vehicle which is self-propelled.

      1.  Homicide is justifiable when committed by a peace officer, or person acting under the command and in the aid of the peace officer, in the following cases:

            (a) In obedience to the judgment of a competent court.

            (b) When necessary to overcome actual resistance to the execution of the legal process, mandate or order of a court or officer, or in the discharge of a legal duty.

            (c) When necessary:

                  (1) In retaking an escaped or rescued prisoner who has been committed, arrested for, or convicted of a felony;

                  (2) In attempting, by lawful ways or means and in accordance with the provisions of NRS 171.1455, to apprehend or arrest a person;

                  (3) In lawfully suppressing a riot or preserving the peace; or

                  (4) Except as otherwise provided in NRS 193.304, in protecting against an imminent threat to the life of a person.

      2.  As used in this section, “peace officer” has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 169.125.

All other instances which stand upon the same footing of reason and justice as those enumerated shall be considered justifiable or excusable homicide.

Homicide is also justifiable when committed:

      1.  In the lawful defense of the slayer, or his or her spouse, parent, child, brother or sister, or of any other person in his or her presence or company, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design on the part of the person slain to commit a felony or to do some great personal injury to the slayer or to any such person, and there is imminent danger of such design being accomplished; or

      2.  In the actual resistance of an attempt to commit a felony upon the slayer, in his or her presence, or upon or in a dwelling, or other place of abode in which the slayer is.

The killing of the deceased named in the indictment or information by the defendant being proved, the burden of proving circumstances of mitigation, or that justify or excuse the homicide, will devolve on the accused, unless the proof on the part of the prosecution sufficiently manifests that the crime committed only amounts to manslaughter, or that the accused was justified, or excused in committing the homicide.

      1.  Excusable homicide by misadventure occurs when:

            (a) A person is doing a lawful act, without any intention of killing, yet unfortunately kills another, as where a person is at work with an ax and the head flies off and kills a bystander; or

            (b) An officer punishing a criminal happens to occasion death, which acts of correction are lawful.

      2.  If the officer exceeds the sentence under which the officer acts, either in the manner, the instrument, or quantity of punishment, and death ensues, it is manslaughter or murder, according to the circumstances of the case.

The homicide appearing to be justifiable or excusable, the person indicted shall, upon trial, be fully acquitted and discharged.

If a person kills another in self-defense, it must appear that:

      1.  The danger was so urgent and pressing that, in order to save the person’s own life, or to prevent the person from receiving great bodily harm, the killing of the other was absolutely necessary; and

      2.  The person killed was the assailant, or that the slayer had really, and in good faith, endeavored to decline any further struggle before the mortal blow was given.

A person who willfully kills an unborn quick child, by any injury committed upon the mother of the child, commits manslaughter and shall be punished for a category B felony by imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 10 years, and may be further punished by a fine of not more than $10,000.

A woman who takes or uses, or submits to the use of, any drug, medicine or substance, or any instrument or other means, with the intent to terminate her pregnancy after the 24th week of pregnancy, unless the same is performed upon herself upon the advice of a physician acting pursuant to the provisions of NRS 442.250, and thereby causes the death of the child of the pregnancy, commits manslaughter and shall be punished for a category B felony by imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 10 years, and may be further punished by a fine of not more than $10,000.

A person navigating a vessel for gain who willfully or negligently receives so many passengers or such a quantity of other lading on board that by means thereof the vessel sinks, is overset or injured, and thereby a human being is drowned or otherwise killed, commits manslaughter and shall be punished:

      1.  If the overloading is negligent, for a category D felony as provided in NRS 193.130.

      2.  If the overloading is willful, for a category B felony by imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 10 years, and may be further punished by a fine of not more than $10,000.

If the owner or custodian of any vicious or dangerous animal, knowing its propensities, willfully or negligently allows it to go at large, and the animal while at large kills a human being who is not in fault, the owner or custodian commits manslaughter and shall be punished for a category D felony as provided in NRS 193.130.

A person who makes or keeps gunpowder or any other explosive substance in a city or town in any quantity or manner prohibited by law or by ordinance of the municipality commits manslaughter if an explosion thereof occurs whereby the death of a human being is occasioned, and shall be punished for a category D felony as provided in NRS 193.130.