cide", is normally a crime only under state law, and a murder suspect will be arrested and held by local officials and tried in a local court on behalf of the state. For murders that are federal crimes (e.g. a killing of a federal official or on federal property), the trial would occur in a federal court. Approximately 16,000 cases of murder or nonnegligent homicide occur each year in the US according to official FBI crime statistics; among solved cases, almost half of murders are committed by a narrow social group of Black males age 17 to 50 (constituting less than 3% of general population). 
Traditionally, and still in some states, the following terminology is used:
- First-degree murder (or murder in the first degree, or colloquially, murder one) refers to
- a killing that is premeditated(thought about beforehand) murder, or murder which occurs after some degree of reflection by the murderer. This reflection can be years or less than a second. First degree murder is done with malice(intent to kill).
- Second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter refers to
- murder done without thought in the heat of the moment, or in some states after "adequate provocation".
- Third-degree murder, also known as manslaughter,
- occurs without the specific intent to kill, but usually after an act of criminal negligence or some other act resulting in a person's death. This would in some cases include a death caused by drunk driving or someone dying as the result of an assault in which case the perpetrator didn't have the intent to kill.
In some other states, the definitions have been adjusted to reflect factors like perceived need for greater deterrence, rather than those usual distinctions. For instance, the murder of a police officer, or any murder committed while serving a life sentence, is in some states a first-degree murder regardless of further circumstances.
 Felony murder statutes
Many jurisdictions in the United States have also adopted felony murder statutes, according to which anyone who commits a serious crime (a felony), during which a person dies, is guilty of committing murder. This applies even if one does not personally cause the person's death. For example, a driver for an armed robbery can be convicted of murder if one of the robbers killed someone in the process of the robbery, even though the driver was not present at and did not expect the killing. In a few cases, some robbers have been found guilty of felony murder for the deaths of their accomplices.
 Capital murder
Capital murder is murder which is punishable by death. In 38 states and the federal government itself, there are laws allowing capital punishment for this crime. Depending on the state, a murder may qualify as "capital murder" if (a) the person murdered was of a special class, such as a police officer; (b) "special circumstances" occurred in the crime, such as multiple murder, the use of poison, or "lying in wait" in order to murder the victim. Capital murder is quite rare in the United States compared to other murder convictions, but it has generated tremendous public debate. See generally capital punishment and capital punishment in the United States.
 Cultural references
In Germany the term Mord (murder) is officially used for the premeditated killing of another person:
- for pleasure, satisfaction of the sex drive, greed or other "low motives",
- insidiously (an unsuspecting victim) or cruelly, by means dangerous to the public (for example with a bomb),
- to cover up or facilitate another criminal offense.
A killing which is not a murder may be either Totschlag (manslaughter) or fahrlässige Tötung (negligent homicide). Also, if the death is not a forseeable consequence of an intended or not intended act of violence, it might be classified as Körperverletzung mit Todesfolge (injury resulting in death). The penalty for Mord is lifelong imprisonment, the penalty for Totschlag is five to fifteen years imprisonment.
 The Netherlands
By Dutch law, murder (moord) is punishable by a prison sentence of up to twenty years, which is the longest prison sent