Criminal Law Corpus Delicti of Homicide: 1. Death of a human. 2. Caused by the act of another human’s criminal act. Can be proven without a human body being discovered and does not need to point toward any particular defendant.

Criminal Law- Murder Murder- unlawful, unjustified, unexcused, intentional killing of a human being by another human being with malice. Malice: a human endangering state of mind. Lawful killing: execution of death penalty prisoner. Justified killing: self-defense when faced with deadly force.

Criminal Law- Murder Premeditation: the prior planning and calculation directed toward a killing of a fellow human being. Often characterized by the use of poison, torture, or by lying in wait. Defendant may weigh the reasons for and against the killing and give some thought of how to accomplish the deed. Defendant may also give some thought to escape or to the escape of detection for the crime.

Criminal Law- Murder Premeditation: Malice v. Premeditation Refers to a period of time (it may be very short or may happen over a period of time) during which the defendant reflected on the proposed murder scheme, weighed the merits of the plan, the reasons for and against doing the act, and ultimately decided to commit the killing. Malice involves the mental decision by a defendant to take life where the intent to kill is formed. Premeditation refers more to the implementation of the decision to take life; how to commit the killing.

Criminal Law- Murder Malice: (characterized by:) 1. a pure intent to kill. 2. an intent to inflict serious bodily injury. 3. an intent to commit an inherently dangerous felony listed as such by the state's statute. Examples typically included are burglary, rape, arson, robbery, and kidnaping. 4. an intent to resist a lawful arrest with force. 5. an intent to do an act which creates a highly or outrageous risk of death or serious bodily injury.

Criminal Law- Murder Malice aforethought, other ways of describing the concept: Malice is a legal term which comprehends not only a particular ill will, but every case where there is a wickedness of disposition, hardness of heart, cruelty, recklessness of consequences, or a mind regardless of social duty.

Criminal Law- Murder Malice aforethought and Malice are synonymous with each other; each term means the same thing for the purposes of analyzing murder. Please do not confuse malice or malice aforethought with premeditation. Each word conveys a discrete concept.

Criminal Law- Murder Felony-Murder Rule: any one [ includes accomplices] who commits or attempts to commit one of the listed five inherently dangerous felonies subjects the defendant to criminal liability for the top level of murder when a life is lost during the commission of the crime. The typical listed felonies: robbery, burglary, rape, kidnapping, and arson.

Criminal Law- Murder Rationale for Felony-Murder Rule: Any one who is willing to commit or attempt to commit any of the listed felonies in held to know that all of them involve an unreasonable risk of death to any human victim who might be involved. No one commits these crimes without a level of prior planning, knowing the risk to human life that such a plan involves.