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    Legal Definition: at Common Law

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    Markus Aurelius
    Murder is generally defined as an unlawful killing with malice aforethought or intent to kill. However, definitions vary between jurisdictions and are often codified in legislation. At common law, murder was considered a public wrong. Some jurisdictions still use precedent from common law to define murder, while most have statutory prohibitions against it. Lawful killings in cases of self-defense or defense of others, justified use of force by law enforcement, or capital punishment are generally excluded from definitions of murder.

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    Legal Definition: at Common Law

    Uploaded by

    Markus Aurelius
    29 views1 page
    Murder is generally defined as an unlawful killing with malice aforethought or intent to kill. However, definitions vary between jurisdictions and are often codified in legislation. At common law, murder was considered a public wrong. Some jurisdictions still use precedent from common law to define murder, while most have statutory prohibitions against it. Lawful killings in cases of self-defense or defense of others, justified use of force by law enforcement, or capital punishment are generally excluded from definitions of murder.

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    Legal Def

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    Murder is generally defined as an unlawful killing with malice aforethought or intent to kill. However, definitions vary between jurisdictions and are often codified in legislation. At common law, murder was considered a public wrong. Some jurisdictions still use precedent from common law to define murder, while most have statutory prohibitions against it. Lawful killings in cases of self-defense or defense of others, justified use of force by law enforcement, or capital punishment are generally excluded from definitions of murder.

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    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    29 views1 page

    Legal Definition: at Common Law

    Uploaded by

    Markus Aurelius
    Murder is generally defined as an unlawful killing with malice aforethought or intent to kill. However, definitions vary between jurisdictions and are often codified in legislation. At common law, murder was considered a public wrong. Some jurisdictions still use precedent from common law to define murder, while most have statutory prohibitions against it. Lawful killings in cases of self-defense or defense of others, justified use of force by law enforcement, or capital punishment are generally excluded from definitions of murder.

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    Legal definition

    As with most legal terms, the precise definition of murder varies between jurisdictions and is usually codified in some form of legislation. [edit]At

    common law
    [20]

    According to Blackstone, English common law identified murder as a public wrong. At 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/evil by its very nature. And it is the very nature of the act which does not require any specific [21] detailing or definition in the law to consider murder a crime. Some jurisdictions still take a common law view of murder. In such jurisdictions, precedent case law or previous decisions of the courts of law defines what is considered murder. However, it tends to be rare and the majority of jurisdictions have some statutory prohibition against murder. [edit]Exclusions Unlawful killings without malice or intent are considered manslaughter. Justified or accidental killings are considered homicides. Depending on the circumstances, these may or may not be considered criminal offenses. Suicide is not considered murder in most societies. Assisting a suicide, however, may be considered murder in some circumstances. Capital punishment ordered by a legitimate court of law as the result of a conviction in a criminal trial with due process for a serious crime. Killing of enemy combatants by lawful combatants in accordance with lawful orders in war, although illicit killings within a war may constitute murder or homicidal war crimes. (see the Laws of war article) The administration of lethal drugs by a doctor to a terminally ill patient, if the intention is solely to alleviate pain, is seen in many jurisdictions as a special case (see the doctrine of double effect and [22] the case of Dr John Bodkin Adams). In some cases, killing a person who is attempting to kill another is classified as self-defense and thus, not murder.

    [edit]Self-defense Acting in self-defense or in defense of another person is generally accepted as legal justification for killing a person in situations that would otherwise have been murder. However, a self-defense killing might be considered manslaughter if the killer established control of the situation before the killing took place. In [23] the case of self-defense it is called a "justifiable homicide". A killing simply to prevent the theft of one's property may not be a justifiable homicide, depending on the laws of a place.

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