Murder
[8] The eighteenth-century English jurist William Blackstone (citing Edward Coke), in his Commentaries on the Laws of England set out the common law definition of murder, which by this definition occurs when a person, of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought, either express or implied.Mitigating factors that weigh against a finding of intent to kill, such as "loss of control" or "diminished responsibility", may result in the reduction of a murder charge to voluntary manslaughter.Under state of mind (iii), an "abandoned and malignant heart", the killing must result from the defendant's conduct involving a reckless indifference to human life and a conscious disregard of an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily injury.In Australian jurisdictions, the unreasonable risk must amount to a foreseen probability of death (or grievous bodily harm in most states), as opposed to possibility.In Spanish criminal law,[17] asesinato (literally 'assassination'): takes place when any of these requirements concur: Treachery (the use of means to avoid risk for the aggressor or to ensure that the crime goes unpunished), price or reward (financial gain) or viciousness (deliberately increasing the pain of the victim).After the last reform of the Spanish Criminal Code, in force since July 1, 2015, another circumstance that turns homicide (homicidio) into assassination is the desire to facilitate the commission of another crime or to prevent it from being discovered.This is the crime of wrongfully and intentionally causing the death of another human being (also known as murder) after rationally considering the timing or method of doing so, in order to either increase the likelihood of success, or to evade detection or apprehension.In the Netherlands, the traditional strict distinction between premeditated intentional killing (classed as murder, moord) and non-premeditated intentional killing (manslaughter, doodslag) is maintained; when differentiating between murder and manslaughter, the only relevant factor is the existence or not of premeditation (rather than the existence or not of mitigating or aggravated factors).[38] And secondly, as stated by Justice Stanley Mosk in his dissent, because women carrying nonviable fetuses may not be visibly pregnant, it may be possible for a defendant to be convicted of intentionally murdering a person they did not know existed.In any prosecution for an offense, it is an affirmative defence that when the defendant engaged in the proscribed conduct, he lacked criminal responsibility by reason of mental disease or defect.That such conduct was wrong.Under the French Penal Code: Article 122-1 Those who successfully argue a defense based on a mental disorder are usually referred to mandatory clinical treatment until they are certified safe to be released back into the community, rather than prison.According to Susan Friedman, "Two dozen nations have infanticide laws that decrease the penalty for mothers who kill their children of up to one year of age."[42] In the law of the Republic of Ireland, infanticide was made a separate crime from murder in 1949, applicable for the mother of a baby under one year old where "the balance of her mind was disturbed by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child or by reason of the effect of lactation consequent upon the birth of the child".For example, Dan White used this defense[50] to obtain a manslaughter conviction, instead of murder, in the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.The felony-murder reflects the versari in re illicita: the offender is objectively responsible for the event of the unintentional crime;[66] in fact the figure of the civil law systems corresponding to felony murder is the preterintentional homicide (art.Felony murder contrasts with the principle of guilt, for which in England it was, at least formally, abolished in 1957, in Canada it was quashed by the Supreme Court, while in the USA it continues to survive.[72][73][74] In some common law jurisdictions, a defendant accused of murder is not guilty if the victim survives for longer than one year and one day after the attack.[75] This reflects the likelihood that if the victim dies, other factors will have contributed to the cause of death, breaking the chain of causation; and also means that the responsible person does not have a charge of murder "hanging over their head indefinitely".[78][79] Abolition of the rule has been accomplished by enactment of statutory criminal codes, which had the effect of displacing the common-law definitions of crimes and corresponding defenses.[80] The potential effect of fully abolishing the rule can be seen in the case of 74-year-old William Barnes, charged with the murder of a Philadelphia police officer Walter T. Barclay Jr., who he had shot nearly 41 years previously.[81] According to Peter Morrall, the motivations for murder fit into the following four categories:[82] Morall takes a biological view of offending when he insists the risk factors that may increase the chance that somebody will commit a murder include:[82] Certain personality disorders are associated with an increased homicide rate, most notably narcissistic, anti-social, and histrionic personality disorders and those associated with psychopathology.(Evans-Pritchard 1956: 195) This statement is true for most African tribes, for pre-modern Europeans, for Indigenous Australians, and for Native Americans, according to ethnographic reports from all over the world.This mystic secret society killed members of the Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuq and Crusader elite for political and religious reasons.[95] The Aztecs believed that without regular offerings of blood the sun god Huitzilopochtli would withdraw his support for them and destroy the world as they knew it.[101] In 1811, the wealthy white planter Arthur Hodge was hanged for murdering several of his slaves on his plantation in the Virgin Islands.They fell below 2 per 100,000 by 1900, rose during the first half of the century, dropped in the years following World War II, and bottomed out at 4.0 in 1957 before rising again.[112] The increase since 1957 would have been even greater if not for the significant improvements in medical techniques and emergency response times, which mean that more and more attempted homicide victims survive.[121] The top ten highest murder rates are in Honduras (91.6 per 100,000), El Salvador, Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Belize, Jamaica, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Zambia.[140][146][147] Development of murder rates over time in different countries is often used by both supporters and opponents of capital punishment and gun control.[150] Major factors affecting the arrest rate include witness cooperation[149] and the number of people assigned to investigate the case.
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Murder (disambiguation)Murderer (disambiguation)Double MurderPeter Paul RubensCriminal lawElementsActus reusMens reaCausationConcurrenceliabilityAccessoryAccompliceComplicityCorporatePrincipalVicariousFelonyIndictable offenseMisdemeanorSummary offenseInchoate offensesAttemptConspiracyIncitementSolicitationOffense against the personAssassinationAssaultBatteryChild abuseCriminal negligenceDomestic violenceFalse imprisonmentFrameupHarassmentHome invasionHate crimeHomicideHuman traffickingIntimidationKidnappingMenacingManslaughterMayhemPreterintentionNegligent homicideRobberyStalkingStabbingTortureSexual offensesAdulteryBigamyChild sexual abuseCybersex traffickingHomosexualityIncestIndecent exposureObscenityProstitutionPederastySex traffickingSexual assaultSexual harassmentSexual slaveryVoyeurismArms traffickingBlackmailBriberyBurglaryCybercrimeEmbezzlementExtortionFalse pretensesForgeryGamblingIntellectual property violationLarcenyLootingPayolaPickpocketingPossessing stolen propertySmugglingTax evasionTrespass to landVandalismMischiefCompoundingMalfeasance in officeMiscarriage of justiceMisprisionObstructionPerjuryPerverting the course of justiceApostasyBeggingCorruptionCensorship violationDuelingGenocideEthnic cleansingHostage-takingInsider tradingIllegal consumptionalcoholsmokingMiscegenationPiracyRegicideTerrorismUsurpationWar crimesCruelty to animalsPoachingWildlife smugglingBestialityLèse-majestéTreasonEspionageSecessionSeditionSubversionDefenses to liabilityActual innocenceAutomatism