Tripp v. State

Murder, which is unmitigated homicide, stands higher on the ladder of culpability than manslaughter, which is mitigated homicide. Because the negative element of non-mitigation is initially presumed, Evans v. State, 28 Md. App. 640, 722-730, 349 A. 2d 300, and need not be proved unless and until a genuine jury question as to mitigation has been raised, the State leaps at a bound to the murder plateau when it shows an intentional killing by the defendant. It does not pass upward through the manslaughter level; it rather leapfrogs the manslaughter level and is not obliged to go back for the…