The steps leading up to a homicide and the actions taken post-homicide are crucial to understanding the defendant's malice, culpability, dangerousness, and criminal liability. I analyzed 213 convicted first-, second-, and third-degree homicides across five counties in Pennsylvania from 2012 to 2016. We found a small percentage of approximately 7.7% of cases where the defendant tried to hide, conceal, or dispose of the body. In 16.2% of cases, the defense attorney requested a psychological evaluation of the defendant. In approximately 7.5% of cases was there more than one victim. I divided the dataset into two categories: homicide via firearm and exorbitant killing. I found that in firearm homicides the defendant was less likely to be psychologically evaluated, more likely to be premeditated, and more likely to have a co-defendant. I also found that in exorbitant homicides the victim was much more likely to be familiarly related to the defendant.
