Threat

A menace of destruction or injury to the person, character, or property of those against whom it is made. A declaration of an intention or determination to injure another by the commission of some unlawful act. If the act intended to be done is not unlawful, then the declaration is not a threat in law, and the effect thereof is not intimidation in a legal sense; Payne v. R. Co., 13 Lea (Tenn.) 507, 49 Am. Rep. 660. To extort money under threat of charging the prosecutor with an unnatural crime has been held to be robbery; People v. McDaniels, 1 Park. Cr. R. (N. Y.) 199; but to extort money or other valuable thing by threat of prosecution for passing counterfeit money, or any prosecution except that for an unnatural crime, is not robbery; Britt v. State, 7 Humph. (Tenn.) 45; though it is a criminal offense; 11 Mod. 137; United States v. Ravara, 2 Dall. 299, n., 1 L. Ed. 388. It must come to the knowledge of the one whom it is expected to influence. The meaning of the word implies that it is a menace of some kind, which in some manner comes to the knowledge of the one sought to be affected; State v. Brownlee, 84 Ia. 473, 51 N. W. 25.

See Threatening Letter.

— Threats to commit suicide are not admissible unless part of the res gestae, in a case where one is on trial for murder of the person who made the threats; State v. Fitzgerald, 130 Mo. 407, 32 S. W. 1113; but they were admitted in such a case when made the day before the death; Com. v. Trefethen, 157 Mass. 180, 31 N. E. 901, 24 L. R. A. 235;

— or where there were successive declarations more or less contemporaneous with the taking of a life insurance policy, and efforts to borrow money on it, which tended to show a concerted scheme of fraud; Smith v. Benefit Soc., 123 N. Y. 85, 25 N. E. 197, 9 L. R. A. 616; but not when made two years before the issuing of the policy; Hale v. Inv. Co., 65 Minn. 518, 68 N. W. 182.

In Evidence.

Menace.

See Confession.

See Confession.