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In the United States, the law for murder varies by jurisdiction. In many US jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first-degree murder and felony murder [1] are the most serious, followed by second-degree murder and, in a few states, third-degree murder, which in other states is divided into voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter such ...
The actus reus (Latin for "guilty act") of murder was defined in common law by Coke: . Murder is when a man of sound memory and of the age of discretion, unlawfully killeth within any county of the realm any reasonable creature in rerum natura under the King's peace, with malice aforthought, either expressed by the party or implied by law, so as the party wounded, or hurt, etc. die of the ...
According to common law, murder is considered to be malum in se, that is, an act which is evil within itself. An act such as murder is wrong or evil by its very nature, and it is the very nature of the act which does not require any specific detailing or definition in the law to consider murder a crime. [26]
Massacre, mass murder or spree killing – the killing of many people. Murder – the malicious and unlawful killing of a human by another human. Manslaughter - murder, but under legally mitigating circumstances. Omnicide – the act of killing all humans, to create intentional extinction of the human species (Latin: omni "all, everyone").
The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder: when someone is killed (regardless of intent to kill) in the commission of a dangerous or enumerated crime (called a felony in some jurisdictions), the offender, and also the offender's accomplices or co-conspirators, may be found guilty of murder.
It means that the common law malice required for murder is "implied as a matter of law for homicides arising from felonies." [2] It is a widely criticized feature of American criminal law. [3] Initially, it was widely believed by scholars that the felony murder rule had originated in England.
According to Black's Law Dictionary justifiable homicide applies to the blameless killing of a person, such as in self-defense. [1]The term "legal intervention" is a classification incorporated into the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, and does not denote the lawfulness or legality of the circumstances surrounding a death caused by law enforcement. [2]
Murder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent (or malice aforethought), and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter). As the loss of a human being inflicts an enormous amount of grief for individuals close to the victim ...