Malice Aforethought
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Wicked purpose
These words in the description of murder do not imply deliberation, or the lapse of considerable time between the malicious intent to take and the actual execution of that intent, but rather denote purpose and design, in contradistinction to accident and mischance.
5 Gush. (Mass.) 306. And see 8 Car. & P. 616; 2 Mason (U. S.) 60; 1 Dev. & B. (N. C.) 121, 163; 6 Blackf. (Ind.) 299; 3 Ala. (N. S.) 497.
They do not imply evil design against a particular person, but evil design in general, the dictate of a wicked, depraved, and malignant heart.
49 N. H. 399.
The term implies more than "malice" (1 Clark & Marshall, Crimes, 492). It includes not only a willful doing of wrong without lawful excuse, but an evil purpose, general or particular therein.
2 Moody, 40. See 9 Yerg. (Tenn.) 342.