gistfile1.txt

> Is manslaughter in most jurisdictions, really 3rd degree murder? If so, why keep an old-fashioned sexist term instead of changing it to a non-sexist term with a better description?

Fairly few states define "third degree murder" or "murder in the third degree". I'll touch on a handful that either have three degrees of murder, or are commonly believed to do so.

In Pennsylvania, "murder in the third degree" is _not_ the same as "manslaughter" (which in Pennsylvania, has two flavors, "voluntary" and "involuntary"). In Pennsylvania, "murder 3" is a catch-all offense, and covers all criminal homicides that are neither murder 1 nor murder 2 nor which qualify for mitigation under the voluntary or involuntary manslaughter statutes. 

In Florida, murder in the third degree is a so-called "felony murder": a death that occurs during the perpetration of another crime (Florida's law has a long list) that is punished as a murder even though the offender had no specific intent to cause death. Murder 3 in Florida is distinct from manslaughter; in fact, the definition of manslaughter in Florida is simply any homicide which is neither a murder nor a justifiable killing.

California, despite the apparent common belief to the contrary, does _not_ have "third degree murder". California's murder statute (Calif. Penal Code sec. 187) defines only two degrees of murder. It appears that there are people who think of voluntary manslaughter (PC 192) as "third degree murder"; this may be due to prior law that I'm not aware of (I'm no expert on the history of California law). 

I checked two other states that supposedly have third degree murder laws (Washington and Louisiana), but neither of them does. Neither does New York (two degrees). The federal criminal code defines a single offense, murder (18 U.S.C. § 1111). Illinois has two degrees of murder (second degree murder in Illinois being simply first degree murder under circumstances that provide imperfect justification), and Indiana has only a single offense, murder. I obviously haven't reviewed all fifty states; if someone finds a state I haven't mentioned that has three or more degrees of murder, please feel free to note in the comments.

In any case, in none of the jurisdictions I reviewed was "third degree murder" synonymous with manslaughter, at least as a matter of law. In most, the phrase "third degree murder" was of no legal meaning at all. Also, I note that all of the jurisdictions I reviewed define an offense called "manslaughter", and all of them use this "sexist" term, instead of a nonsexist one. "Manslaughter" is also the term used by the Model Penal Code. I'm at a loss as to what a better term would be. "Personslaughter" sounds stupid. I suppose you could use the technical phrase "reckless homicide", but that doesn't actually cover all state law formulations of manslaughter (specifically, those states that mitigate murder to manslaughter when the act is imperfectly justified).

This is probably an example of why you shouldn't trust Wikipedia. My attempts to identify states that have third degree murder laws kept bringing me back to Wikipedia, which incorrectly asserts that "third degree murder is also known as manslaughter" and that Louisiana has a third degree murder statute when it does not.