Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

Mont. Code Ann. § 45-5-102

Deliberate homicide

Known as the Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 45–45 (382 sections).

Applied in 27 court decisions — leading case Sandstrom v. Montana (1979)

Most recently applied in State v. Monaco (March 2026)

En. 94-5-102 by Sec. 1, Ch. 513, L. 1973; amd

How often courts cite this section

19791990200020102020202630
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person commits the offense of deliberate homicide if:

(a) the person purposely or knowingly causes the death of another human being;

(b) the person attempts to commit, commits, or is legally accountable for the attempt or commission of robbery, sexual intercourse without consent, arson, burglary, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, felonious escape, assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, or any other forcible felony and in the course of the forcible felony or flight thereafter, the person or any person legally accountable for the crime causes the death of another human being; or

(c) the person purposely or knowingly causes the death of a fetus of another with knowledge that the woman is pregnant.

(2) A person convicted of the offense of deliberate homicide shall be punished by death as provided in 46-18-301 through 46-18-310, unless the person is less than 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense, by life imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than 10 years or more than 100 years, except as provided in 46-18-219 and 46-18-222.

Official source: Montana Code Annotated (Montana Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Montana statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.