If someone killed another 'person' that turned out to be a space alien, is that murder?

I’m going to go with Yes.

Thanks for your considered opinion. First is always best.

I personally wouldn’t call it murder if someone squashed a spider, and they for sure aren’t human. So in my opinion, No. Besides I’m horribly scared of aliens

Who knows if the perpetrator would be charged with murder, but alien or human I would still call it murder.

Legally? Probably not. The powers that be would cover it up anyway.
Morally? I have no idea. Guess it would depend if they were looking for an anal probe without buying me dinner first.

Well if the alien was capable of impersonating a human then they are clearly not a dumb animal species. In which case, it would be murder in a moral sense. Legally I can’t say, since our legal system is not designed to handle such a situation.

I think it would depend on who did the killing. If a member of the public killed an alien I’m sure it would be murder. If a government agent did it, then it wouldn’t be.

Ok. that’s good. Thanks. As it turned out, I got off. You are safe again.

Morally – yes. If you don’t know the victim is a space alien, you aren’t all of a sudden a better person because it turns out that it is.
Legally – we’re going to need to wait till this comes up. It probably depends on the judge hearing the case.

I thought homicide was one human killing another! This would not constitute homicide then.

I just checked Black’s Law Dictionary.

murder, n. (bef. 12c) The killing of a human being with malice aforethought.

So, nope.

Edit: Though I doubt this is how the case would be handled. Just figured it was worth a look.

Yes. It is a sentient being in the guise of a human, so for all intents and purposes, it’s murder.
In the California mountains of 1850, there lived a tribe of passive Indians that the miners and everyone with a gun shot for the sole purpose of killing something. Was it murder?