American Samoa § 46.3502 - Murder in the 1st degree.

§ 46.3502. Murder in the 1st degree.

(a) A person commits the crime of murder in the 1st degree if: (1) intending or knowing that his conduct will cause death or serious bodily injury, he causes the death of another person with deliberation; or (2) acting either alone or with 1 or more other persons, he commits or attempts to commit any class A felony and in the course of and in furtherance of the offense or immediate flight from it, he or another person who is a party to the offense recklessly causes the death of a person other than 1 of the parties to the commission of the offense: (3) it is an affirmative defense to a charge of violation subparagraph (a)(2) that the defendant: (A) was not the only participant in the underlying crime: (B) did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command importune, cause, or aid the commission of it: (C) was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article, or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury and of a sort not ordinarily carried in public places by law-abiding persons; (D) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and (E) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury. (b) For the purposes of this section, “deliberation” means that the defendant acts with either the intention or the knowledge that he will kill another human being or cause him serious bodily injury, when the intention or knowledge precedes the killing by an appreciable length of time to permit reflection; an act is not done with deliberation if it is the instant effort of impulse. (c) The penalties for murder in the 1st degree are provided for in 46.3510 through 46.3516. Case Notes: “Malice aforethought” is satisfied by defendant acting from anger, spite and revenge, while aware that shooting 16-gauge shotgun could cause case grave injury to victims. Government v. Patu, ASR (1976).