Malice Aforethought

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.

A technical phrase employed in indictments, which with the word murder must be used to distinguish the felonious killing called murder from what is called manslaughter. Yelv. 2(X); 1 Chitty, Cr. L. 242; 1 Bish. Cr. L. § 429. In the description of murder the words do not imply deliberation, or the lapse of considerable time between the malicious intent to take life and the actual execution of that intent, but rather denote purpose and design in contradistinction to accident and mischance; Com. v. Webster, 5 Cush. (Mass.) 300, 52 Am. Dec. 711; and the intent necessary to constitute malice aforethought need not have existed for any particular time before the act of killing, but it may spring up at the instant and may be inferred from the fact of killing; Allen V. U. 8., 104 U. 8. 492, 17 8up. Ct. 154. 41 L. Ed. 528; but premeditation may be an element showing malice when otherwise it would not sufliciently appear; 2 Bish. Cr. L. 8 677. See 8 C. & P. 616; U. S. v. Cornell, 2 Mas. 60, Fed. Cas. No. 14,867; 1 D. & B.

pleadings. In an indictment for murder, these words, which have a technical force, must be used in charging the offence; for without them, and the artificial phrase murder, the indictment will be taken to charge manslaughter only. Fost. 424; Yelv. 205; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, *242, and the authorities and cases there cited. Whenever malice aforethought is necessary to constitute the offence, these words must be used in charging the crime in the indictment. 2 Chit. Cr. Law, *787; 1 East Pl. Cr. 402.