Lesser - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: lesserlesser included offense
lesser included offense : a crime (as unlawful entry) that is by definition included in the commission of another crime (as burglary) which has additional elements and greater criminal liability called also included offense NOTE: A criminal defendant may be convicted of a lesser included offense even if not charged specifically with that crime. ...
lesser
lesser : of less size, quality, degree, or significance ;specif : of lower criminal liability [duress has been held a good defense to such crimes as robbery, burglary and malicious mischief "W. R. LaFave and A. W. Scott, Jr."] ...
lesser evils defense
lesser evils defense see defense ...
Merger
Merger [fr. mergo, Lat., to sink], an annihilation, by act of law, of a particular in an expectant estate consequent upon their union in the same person without an intervening estate in another person--thus accelerating into possession the expectant which swallows up the particular estate. It is the drowning of one estate in another, and differs from suspension, which is but a partial extinguishment for a time; while extinguishment, properly so termed, is the destruction of a collateral thing in the subject itself out of which it is derived. 'In order that there may be a merger, the two estates which are supposed to coalesce must be vested in the same person at the same time and in the same right' [Re Radcliffe, (1892) 1 Ch 231, per Lindley, LJ]. An estate tail, however is an exception to the rule; for a man may have in his own right both an estate tail and a reversion in fee; and the estate tail, though a less estate, will not merge in the fee, 2 Bl. Com. 177.The doctrine of merger pr...
verdict
verdict [alteration (partly conformed to Medieval Latin veredictum) of Anglo-French veirdit statement, finding, verdict, from Old French veir true (from Latin verus) + dit saying, from Latin dictum] 1 : the usually unanimous finding or decision of a jury on one or more matters (as counts of an indictment or complaint) submitted to it in trial that ordinarily in civil actions is for the plaintiff or for the defendant and in criminal actions is guilty or not guilty compare judgment compromise verdict : a verdict produced not by sincere unanimous agreement on guilt or liability but by an improper surrender of individual convictions ;specif : an impermissible verdict by a jury that is unable to agree on liability and so compromises on an award of damages that is less than what it should be if the plaintiff has a right of recovery free from any doubts di·rect·ed verdict 1 : a verdict granted by the court when the party with the burden of proof has failed to present sufficie...
implied acquittal
implied acquittal : an acquittal of a more serious offense (as first-degree murder) that is considered to result from a verdict which convicts the defendant of a lesser included offense while remaining silent on the greater one NOTE: A greater offense and a lesser included offense are the same offense under a double jeopardy analysis. Therefore, a conviction of a lesser included offense and implied acquittal of the greater offense bars retrial on the greater offense. ...
defense
defense 1 : the act or action of defending see also self-defense 2 a : the theory or ground that forms the basis for a defendant's opposition to an allegation in a complaint or to a charge in a charging instrument (as an indictment) ;also : the evidence and arguments presented supporting the defendant's opposition see also accord, alibi, assumption of risk, coercion, consent contributory negligence at negligence, denial, diminished capacity, duress, entrapment, estoppel, fraud, infancy, insanity, intoxication, laches, mistake, necessity, res judicata, statute of limitations absolute defense : complete defense in this entry af·fir·ma·tive defense : a defense that does not deny the truth of the allegations against the defendant but gives some other reason (as insanity, assumption of risk, or expiration of the statute of limitations) why the defendant cannot be held liable NOTE: The defendant bears the burden of proof as to affirmative defenses. choice of evils d...
reversion
reversion [Anglo-French, from Middle French, from Latin reversio act of turning back, from revertere to turn back] 1 : the returning of an estate upon its termination to the former owner or to his or her successor in interest 2 a : the present vested interest in the residue of an estate that remains in its owner after the grant therefrom of a lesser estate (as a life estate) and that will commence in possession by operation of law upon termination of the lesser estate b : the future interest in property left in a grantor or his or her successor in interest that is not subject to a condition precedent compare possibility of reverter, remainder re·ver·sion·ary [-zhə-ner-ē] adj ...
Domesday, or domesday-book
Domesday, or domesday-book [liber judiciarius vel censualis Angli', Lat.], an ancient record made in the time of William the Conqueror, and now kept at the Record Office, consisting of two volumes, a greater and lesser; the greater containing a survey of all the lands in England except the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, Durham, and part of Lancashire, which it is said, were never surveyed; and excepting Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, which three last are comprehended in the lesser volume. There is also a third book, which differs from the others in form more than in matter, made by command of the same king. And there is a fourth book called Domesday, which is only abridgement of the others. The question whether lands are ancient demesne or not is to be decided by the Domesday of William I., whence there is no appeal. The addition of day to this Dome-book was not meant for an allusion to the final day of judgment, as most persons have conceived, but was to strengthen...
Excommunication
Excommunication, an ecclesiastical interdict or censure, divided into the greater and the lesser; by the greater a person was excluded from the communion of the church and the company of the faithful, and was rendered incapable of any legal act; by the lesser he was merely debarred from participation in the Sacraments.See No. 33 of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion as to avoiding an excommunicated person 'until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the church by a judge that hath authority thereto'; Canon 112, to the effect that the minister and churchwardens shall yearly within 40 days after Easter exhibit to the Bishop or his Chancellor the names and surnames of all the parishioners, as well men as women, which being of the age of sixteen years received not the Communion at Easter before; and Jenkins v. Cook, (1876) 1 PD 80, in which the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council admonished a vicar to refrain from refusing to administer the Communion to a parishioner....
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