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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>57602</law_id><section_number>18.2-32</section_number><catch_line>First and second degree murder defined; punishment</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><referred_to_by><reference>16.1-269.1</reference><reference>17.1-805</reference><reference>18.2-308.2</reference><reference>18.2-33</reference><reference>18.2-50.3</reference><reference>18.2-513</reference><reference>19.2-268.3</reference><reference>19.2-392.02</reference><reference>37.2-900</reference><reference>53.1-134.1</reference><reference>53.1-151</reference><reference>53.1-202.3</reference><reference>53.1-40.02</reference><reference>9.1-902</reference></referred_to_by><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="18.2">Crimes and Offenses Generally</unit><unit label="chapter" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="4">Crimes Against the Person</unit><unit label="article" level="3" order_by="1" identifier="1">Homicide</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p><span class="dictionary">Murder</span>, other than aggravated <span class="dictionary">murder</span>, by poison, lying in wait, imprisonment, starving, or by any willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or in the commission of, or attempt to commit, <span class="dictionary">arson</span>, <span class="dictionary">rape</span>, forcible sodomy, inanimate or animate <span class="dictionary">object</span> sexual penetration, <span class="dictionary">robbery</span>, <span class="dictionary">burglary</span> or abduction, except as provided in &#xA7;&#xA0;<a class="law" title="Aggravated murder defined; punishment" href="/18.2-31/">18.2-31</a>, is <span class="dictionary">murder</span> of the first degree, punishable as a Class 2 <span class="dictionary">felony</span>.
		All <span class="dictionary">murder</span> other than aggravated <span class="dictionary">murder</span> and <span class="dictionary">murder</span> in the first degree is <span class="dictionary">murder</span> of the second degree and is punishable by confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than five nor more than forty years.</p></section></text><history>Code 1950, &#xA7; 18.1-21; 1960, c. 358; 1962, c. 42; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1976, c. 503; 1977, cc. 478, 492; 1981, c. 397; 1993, cc. 463, 490; 1998, c. 281; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, cc. 344, 345.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
