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Aggravated assault, for example, is usually differentiated from simple assault by the offender's intent (e.g., to murder or to rape), the extent of injury to the victim, or the use of a deadly weapon. An aggravating circumstance is a kind of attendant circumstance and the opposite of an extenuating or mitigating circumstance, which decreases guilt.
In 11 others, proof of some culpable mental state was an element of capital murder. In 13 states, aggravating circumstances above and beyond the fact of the murder itself were required before imposing the death penalty. This left eight states—out of 36—allowed the death penalty for merely participating in a felony in which a murder was ...
Some aggravating circumstances are nearly universal, such as robbery-murder, murder involving rape of the victim, and murder of an on-duty police officer. [128] Several states have included child murder to their list of aggravating factors, but the victim's age under which the murder is punishable by death varies. In 2011, Texas raised this age ...
A presentence investigation report (PSIR) is a legal document that presents the findings of an investigation into the "legal and social background" of a person convicted of a crime before sentencing to determine if there are extenuating circumstances which should influence the severity or leniency of a criminal sentence.
Special circumstances in criminal law are actions of the accused, or conditions under which a crime, particularly homicide, was committed. Such factors require or allow for a more severe punishment. Special circumstances are elements of the crime itself, and thus must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt during the
In the circumstance of death, some jurisdictions have described victim impact statements from family members as "irrelevant" to sentencing but not "unimportant" to the process: they are valued for restorative purposes but cannot differentiate punishment for causing death.
In law, attendant circumstances (sometimes external circumstances) are the facts surrounding an event. In criminal law in the United States , the definition of a given offense generally includes up to three kinds of "elements": the actus reus , or guilty conduct; the mens rea , or guilty mental state; and the attendant (sometimes "external ...
In criminal law, lying in wait refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill or inflict serious bodily harm to that person. [1] Because lying in wait involves premeditation, some jurisdictions have established that lying in wait is considered an aggravating circumstance that allows for the imposition of harsher criminal penalties.