Death Penalty - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: death penaltydeath penalty
death penalty : death as punishment for a crime called also capital punishment see also cruel and unusual punishment Gregg v. Georgia in the Important Cases section NOTE: The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the death penalty is not inherently violative of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, provided that the method is not deemed cruel and that the punishment is not excessive in relation to the crime. A statute mandating the death penalty is unconstitutional, however. A sentencing judge is required to consider any mitigating circumstances before imposing the death penalty for a crime. ...
Death penalty
Death penalty, means death by hanging. The punishment only for high treason and piracy with violence. The capital punishment for murder was abolished by the murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act, 1965 and a sentence of life imprisonment substituted, Dictionary of Law, L.B. Curzon, 4th Edn., 1993, p. 53 [Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act, 1965 (UK)]....
death qualification
death qualification : the process of excluding a juror from the jury of a case in which the death penalty may be imposed on the grounds that the juror's objection to the death penalty would prevent him or her from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt ...
Sentence of death, Recording of
Sentence of death, Recording of. See the disused but still unrepealed Judgment of Death Act, 1823 (4 Geo. 4, c. 48), 'to enable Courts to abstain from pronouncing sentence of death in certain capital felonies,' and enter judgment on the record instead--which had the effect of a reprieve.The (English) Children Act, 1933, s. 53(1), provides as follows:-Sentence of death shall not be pronounced on or recorded against a person under the age of eighteen, but in lieu thereof the Court shall sentence him to be detained during His Majesty's pleasure, and, if so sentenced, he shall, notwithstanding anything in the other provisions of this Act, be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the Secretary of State may direct....
sentence
sentence [Old French, opinion, judicial sentence, from Latin sententia, ultimately from sentire to feel, think, express an opinion] 1 : a judgment formally pronouncing the punishment to be inflicted on one convicted of a crime 2 : the punishment that one convicted of a crime is ordered to receive concurrent sentence : a sentence that runs at the same time as another consecutive sentence : a sentence that runs before or after another cumulative sentence : consecutive sentence in this entry ;also : the combination of two or more consecutive sentences death sentence : a sentence condemning the convicted defendant to death de·ter·mi·nate sentence [di-tər-mə-nət-] : a sentence for a fixed rather than indeterminate length of time general sentence : a sentence that does not allocate the punishment imposed for the individual counts on which the defendant was convicted NOTE: General sentences are impermissible. in·de·ter·mi·nate s...
Murder
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...
Prisoner under sentence of death
Prisoner under sentence of death, the expression 'prisoner under sentence of death' can only mean the prisoner whose sentence of death has become final and conclusive and indefeasible which cannot be annulled or voided by any judicial or con-stitutional procedure. Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, AIR 1978 SC 1675 (1730): (1979) 1 SCR 392: (1978) 4 SCC 494. [Prisons Act, 1894, s. 30 (2)]...
felony
felony pl: -nies : a crime that has a greater punishment imposed by statute than that imposed on a misdemeanor ;specif : a federal crime for which the punishment may be death or imprisonment for more than a year see also attainder, treason NOTE: Originally in English law a felony was a crime for which the perpetrator would suffer forfeiture of all real and personal property as well as whatever sentence was imposed. Under U.S. law, there is no forfeiture of all of the felon's property (real or personal) and such forfeiture is not part of the definition of a felony. For certain crimes, however (as for a conviction under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or a narcotics law), specific property, such as that used in or gained by the crime, is subject to forfeiture. Every state has its own statutory definition of a felony. Most are in line with the federal definition of a felony as a crime which carries a sentence of imprisonment for more than one year or the death ...
cruel and unusual punishment
cruel and unusual punishment : punishment that is offensive to the contemporary morality or jurisprudence (as by being degrading, inflicting unnecessary and intentional pain, or being disproportionate to the offense) [nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted "U.S. Constitution amend. VIII"] see also Gregg v. Georgia in the Important Cases section compare corporal punishment, death penalty NOTE: A cruel and unusual punishment is essentially one that the courts consider to violate the Eighth Amendment based on a variety of criteria. The interpretation of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment has changed over time and has varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Most forms of corporal punishment formerly used at common law have been found to be cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the death penalty in itself does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, although mandatory death sentences do. ...
death sentence
death sentence see sentence ...
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