Mitigating Circumstance - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: mitigating circumstancemitigating circumstance
mitigating circumstance : a circumstance in the commission of an act that lessens the degree of criminal culpability [was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder because of mitigating circumstances] ;also : a circumstance or factor relating to an offense or defendant that does not bear on the question of culpability but that receives consideration by the court esp. in lessening the severity of a sentence [the mitigating circumstance of the defendant's terminal illness] compare aggravating circumstance ...
mitigating
serving to reduce blame of situations as mitigating factors mitigating circumstances Opposite of aggravating...
aggravating circumstance
aggravating circumstance : a circumstance relating to the commission of an act that increases the degree of liability or culpability [punitive damages are recoverable in a conversion case when the evidence shows legal malice, willfulness, insult, or other aggravating circumstances "Schwertfeger v. Moorehouse, 569 So. 2d 322 (1990)"] ;also : a circumstance (as lack of remorse) relating to an offense or defendant that receives consideration by the court esp. in imposing a death sentence compare mitigating circumstance ...
death 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. ...
mitigator
mitigator : one that mitigates ;specif : mitigating circumstance [a statutory ] mit·i·ga·to·ry [mi-ti-gə-tȯr-ē] adj ...
point
point 1 : a particular detail, proposition, or issue of law ;specif : point of error 2 : any of various incremental units used in measuring, fixing, or calculating something: as a : a unit used in calculating a sentence by various factors (as aggravating or mitigating circumstances) b : a unit used in the pricing of securities and valuation of markets c : a charge to a borrower (as a mortgagor) that is equal to one percent of the principal and that is made at closing in point or on point : relevant to the legal issues at hand ...
Mitigation of punishment
Mitigation of punishment, a reduction in punishment due to mitigating circumstances that reduce the Criminal's level of culpability, such as the existence of no prior convictions, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1018....
Homicide
Homicide, destroying the life of a human being. In its several stages of guilt, arising from the parti-cular circumstances of mitigation or aggravation which attends it, it is either justifiable, excusable, or felonious.I. Justifiable, of three kinds:(a) Where the proper officer executes a criminal in strict conformity with his sentence.(b) Where an officer of justice, or other person acting in his aid, in the legal exercise of a particular duty, kills a person who resists or prevents him from executing it.(g) Where it is committed in prevention of a forcible and atrocious crime, 1 Hale, 488.II. Excusable, of two kinds:-(a) Per infortunium, or by misadventure, as where a man doing a lawful act, without any intention of hurt, by accident kills another; but if death ensue from any unlawful act, the offence is manslaughter, and not misadventure.(b) Se defendendo, as where a man kills another upon a sudden encounter in his own defence, or in the defence of his wife, child, parent, or serva...
aggravator
aggravator : one that aggravates ;esp : aggravating circumstance [weigh the s and the mitigators in fixing a sentence] ...
damage
damage [Old French, from dam injury, harm, from Latin damnum financial loss, fine] 1 : loss or harm resulting from injury to person, property, or reputation 2 pl : the money awarded to a party in a civil suit as reparation for the loss or injury for which another is liable see also additur, cover, mitigate, remittitur compare declaratory judgment at judgment, injunction specific performance at performance NOTE: The trier of fact determines the amount of damages to be awarded to the prevailing party. More than one type of damages may be awarded for a single injury. actual damages : damages deemed to compensate the injured party for losses sustained as a direct result of the injury suffered called also compensatory damages consequential damages : special damages in this entry direct damages : damages for a loss that is an immediate, natural, and foreseeable result of the wrongful act compare special damages in this entry ex·em·pla·ry damages [ig-zem-plə-r...
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