Murder - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition murder

Definition :

Murder [fr. morthor, morthen, Sax.; murdrum, Low Lat.]. It is thus defined by Coke (3 Inst. 47): 'When a person of sound memory and discretion unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being, with malice aforethought, either express or implied'; see 4 Bl. Com. 195. Consult Russell on Crimes; Arch. Cr. Pl.; Steph. Dig.

(1) The person committing the offence must be conscious of doing wrong, and able to discern between good and evil. See IDIOT; LUNATIC; DRUNKENNESS AND MACNAUGHTON'S CASE.

(2) Death must result within a year and a day after the cause of death administered, see R. v. Dyson, (1908) 2 KB 454.

(3) The person killed must be a reasonable creature in being, and under the king's peace.

(4) The killing must be with malice aforethought, express or implied, and malice is implied from the perpetration of any felony, however absent from the mind of the perpetrator any intention to kill may be. When the act by which death is caused is done with the intention of causing death (See Indian Penal Code, 1860, s. 300)

Capital Punishment.--'Every person convicted of murder shall suffer death as a felon.'--(English) Offences against the Person Act, 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 100), s. 1. See SENTENCE OF DEATH. The execution, formerly public, has taken place in prison since 1868. See CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. On the principle that every greater felony includes a less, a person indicted for murder may be (and very frequently is) convicted of manslaughter. The Infanticide Act, 1922, provides that a woman who wilfully causes the death of her newly-born child shall be guilty of the felony of infanticide if at the time she had not fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to the child, and by reason there of the balance of her mind was then disturbed, although but for the Act she would have been guilty of murder. By the (English) Infant Life (Prevention) Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 34), s. 2 (2), where upon the trial of any person for the murder or manslaughter of any child or for infanticide, the jury may, if of opinion that the person charged is not guilty of murder, manslaughter or infanticide, return a verdict of child destruction if satisfied that such offence has been committed. As to punishment for attempted murder, see R. v. White, (1910) 2 KB 124.

A murderer is absolutely disqualified from deriving any benefit under the will of his victim: see Re Hall, 1914, P. 1, and cases there referred to.

One of the reasons given by the Courts in number of cases for imposing death penalty is that the murder is 'brutal', 'cold-blooded', 'deliberate', 'unpro-voked', 'fatal', 'gruesome', 'wicked', 'callous', 'heinous' or 'violent'. But the use of these labels for describing the nature of the murder is indicative only of the degree of the Court's aversion for the nature or the manner is indicative only of the degree of the Court's aversion for the nature or the manner of commission of the crime and it is possible that different judges may react differently to these situations and moreover, some judges may not regard this factor as having any relevance to the imposition of death penalty and may therefore decline to accord to it the status of 'special reasons', Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, AIR 1982 SC 1325: (1982) 3 SCC 24: (1983) 1 SCR 145.