| n. | 1. | The offense of killing a human being with malice prepense or aforethought, express or implied; intentional and unlawful homicide. |
| v. t. | 1. | To kill with premediated malice; to kill (a human being) willfully, deliberately, and unlawfully. See Murder, |
| 2. | To destroy; to put an end to. | |
| 3. | To mutilate, spoil, or deform, as if with malice or cruelty; to mangle; |
| Noun | 1. | murder - unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being |
| Verb | 1. | murder - kill intentionally and with premeditation; "The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered" |
| 2. | murder - alter so as to make unrecognizable; "The tourists murdered the French language" |
MURDER, crim. law. This, one of the most important crimes that can be
committed against individuals, has been variously defined. Hawkins defines
it to be the willful killing of any subject whatever, with malice
aforethought, whether the person slain shall be an Englishman or a
foreigner. B. 1, c. 13, s. 3. Russell says, murder is the killing of any
person under the king's peace, with malice prepense or aforethought, either
express or implied by law. 1 Rus. Cr. 421. And Sir Edward Coke, 3 Inst. 47,
defines or rather describes this offence to be, "when a person of sound
mind and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being,
and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought either express or
implied."
2. This definition, which has been adopted by Blackstone, 4 Com. 195;
Chitty, 2 Cr. Law, 724; and others, has been severely and perhaps justly
criticised. What, it has been asked, are sound memory and understanding?
What has soundness of memory to do with the act; be it ever so imperfect,
how does it affect the guilt? If discretion is necessary, can the crime ever
be committed, for, is it not the highest indiscretion in a man to take the
life of another, and thereby expose his own? If the person killed be an
idiot or a new born infant, is he a reasonable creature? Who is in the
king's peace? What is malice aforethought? Can there be any malice
afterthought? Livingst. Syst. of Pen. Law; 186.
3. According to Coke's definition there must be, 1st. Sound mind and
memory in the agent. By this is understood there must be a will, (q.v.) and
legal discretion. (q.v.) 2. An actual killing, but it is not necessary that
it should be caused by direct violence; it is sufficient if the acts done
apparently endanger. life, and eventually fatal. Hawk. b. 1, c. 31, s. 4; 1
Hale, P. C. 431; 1 Ashm. R. 289; 9 Car. & Payne, 356; S. C. 38 E. C. L. R.
152; 2 Palm. 545. 3. The party killed must have been a reasonable being,
alive and in the king's peace. To constitute a birth, so as to make the
killing of a child murder, the whole body must be detached from that of the
mother; but if it has come wholly forth, but is still connected by the
umbilical chord, such killing will be murder. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1722, note.
Foeticide (q.v.) would not be such a killing; he must have been in rerum
natura. 4. Malice, either express or implied. It is this circumstance which
distinguishes murder from every description of homicide. Vide art. Malice.
4. In some of the states, by legislative enactments, murder has been
divided into degrees. In Pennsylvania, the act of April 22, 1794, 3 Smith's
Laws, 186, makes "all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison,
or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and
premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or
attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, shall be
deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be
deemed murder of the second degree; and the jury before whom any person
indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if they find the person guilty
thereof, ascertain in their verdict, whether it be murder of the first or
second degree; but if such person shall be convicted by confession, the
court shall proceed by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of
the crime, and give sentence accordingly. Many decisions have been made
under this act to which the reader is referred: see Whart. Dig. Criminal
Law, h.t.
5. The legislature of Tennessee has adopted the same distinction in the
very words of the act of Pennsylvania just cited. Act of 1829, 1 Term. Laws,
Dig. 244. Vide 3 Yerg. R. 283; 5 Yerg. R. 340.
6. Virginia has adopted the same distinction. 6 Rand. R. 721. Vide,
generally, Bac. Ab. h.t.; 15 Vin. Ab. 500; Com. Dig. Justices, M 1, 2;
Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; Hawk. Index, h.t.; 1 Russ. Cr. b. 3, c. 1; Rosc.
Cr. Ev. h.t. Hale, P. C. Index, h.t.; 4 Bl. Com. 195; 2 Swift's Syst.
Index, h.t.; 2 Swift's Dig. Index, h.t.; American Digests, h.t.;
Wheeler's C. C. Index, h.t.; Stark. Ev. Index, h.t.; Chit. Cr. Law, Index,
h.t.; New York Rev. Stat. part 4, c. 1, t. 1 and 2.
MURDER, pleadings. In an indictment for murder, it must be charged that the prisoner "did kill and murder" the deceased, and unless the word murder be introduced into the charge, the indictment will be taken to charge manslaughter only. Foster, 424; Yelv. 205; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, *243, and the authorities and cases there cited.
To dream that you have committed a murder, denotes that you are involved in a dishonourable situation which will ruin your reputation. You may also have some repressed aggression or rage at yourself or at others. To witness a murder in your dream, forewarns of approaching sorrows due to the actions of others. To dream that you are murdered, signifies that you have rivals that are secretly conspiring to ruin you. *Please also see Killingabate, abolish, annihilate, asphyxiate, assassination, be all thumbs, behead, blood, bloodshed, bloody murder, blot out, blunder, blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon, boggle, botch, bumble, bump off, bumping-off, bungle, butchery, carnage, commit a gaffe, cool, decapitate, decimation, destroy, do in, dust off, electrocute, eliminate, elimination, eradicate, eradication, execute, exterminate, extermination, extinguish, faux pas, finish, flounder, foul play, fratricide, fumble, garrote, genocide, get rid of, guillotine, hang, ice, infanticide, knock off, lay low, liquidate, liquidation, lumber, lynch, mangle, manslaughter, mar, matricide, miscue, muddle, muff, murdering, mutilate, parricide, patricide, play havoc with, polish off, purge, purging, put away, put down, put to death, regicide, removal, remove, root out, rub out, ruin, scrag, slaying, slip, smother, snuff out, sororicide, spoil, strangle, stumble, thuggee, thuggery, thuggism, trip, uproot, uxoricide, waste, wipe out, wiping out, wreck