User:HeatherB814/sandbox

This will be the sandbox for the article Malice Aforethought HeatherB814 (talk) 00:50, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Heather's Ideas
I would like to work on finding better sources, especially for the section on the United States. I feel like this section needs to have more information and be fleshed out more so that it makes sense to the average reader. I would like to clarify the definition and possibly bring in some more examples of what it means.

Some Sources Found
“Malice Aforethought.” The Yale Law Journal, vol. 33, no. 5, 1924, pp. 528–536. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/788022.

Gives clear definition of concept with examples and history.

Buxton, Richard. “Malice Aforethought.” The Modern Law Review, vol. 37, no. 6, 1974, pp. 676–681. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1094403.

This article highlights the definition, history, and cases of malice aforethought.

Curry, Philip A. “Malice Aforethought.” Review of Law & Economics, vol. 0, no. 0, Jan. 2016, doi:10.1515/rle-2015-0032. -- Currently waiting for a digital copy from the library

West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman. Vol. 6. 2nd ed. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2005. p405.

An entry in an encyclopedia that describes the concepts involved.

HeatherB814 (talk) 01:22, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

United States
In most common law jurisdictions, the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, and in the various U.S. state statutes, which have codified homicide definitions, the term has been abandoned or substantially revised. The four states of mind that are now recognized as constituting "malice aforethought" in murder prosecutions are as follows:
 * 1) intent to kill
 * 2) intent to inflict serious bodily injury
 * 3) extremely reckless disregard for the value of human life
 * 4) felony murder rule

Since there are 4 different states of mind of malice aforethought, it can be hard to find the differences. It is easiest to break these categories up by premeditation, or express malice and reckless endangerment, or implied malice. Intent to kill or to inflict serious bodily injury would be considered express. This does not mean that the accused made a plan far in advanced, but it could even be in the moment of the crime. If the person did the action knowing it would hurt or kill the other person, there was express malice involved, which is a form of malice aforethought.

As stated above, malice aforethought does not require that the person accused premeditated to hurt a person, but that they knew their actions could lead to someone's harm. This is implied malice, which requires that a person knowingly did an act that they knew was dangerous, and acted without concern for other people's safety. Intention can also be found where the perpetrator acts with gross recklessness showing lack of care for human life, commonly referred to as "depraved-heart murder", or during the commission of or while in flight from a felony or attempted felony (termed felony murder).

Notably, the principle of transferred intent causes an accused who intended to kill one person but inadvertently killed another instead to remain guilty of murder. The intent to kill the first person suffices.

Edits so far
This is an updated and more detailed description of how malice aforethought is used and defined in the United States. I used the penal code from California. I am not sure if this is too specific or if there is another penal code I should use. Just used the example from class. I am not done reworking this, so far I have just changed the flow and added some details. I would like to incorporate a little more information in this text after reviewing more sources. HeatherB814 (talk) 18:40, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

Stephanie's Ideas

 * I'd like to focus on revising/adding to certain sections of the article. The wording is a bit complicated and can be edited for better comprehension
 * I can also check over some of the sources to see if there is any plagiarism or close-paraphrasing involved in the article. Stepcorr (talk) 00:12, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Possible Sources
Stepcorr (talk) 01:07, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Spies, Stephanie. “Malice aforethought and self-defense: mutually exclusive mental states?” New York University Law Review, 2016, Vol 91(4), pp.1027-1058. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/nylr91&i=1058
 * Maudsley, Ronald. "Developments in the English Law of Homicide." University of Miami Law Review, Jan 1, 1959, Vol.14, p.355. Stepcorr (talk) 03:06, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

England

 * The wording in this paragraph is very unclear. I plan on revising it. The second sentence makes no sense and I'm trying to decipher its meaning in regards to the case.
 * The last sentence in the paragraph includes some close paraphrasing so that will be revised.
 * Will probably add on about the R v Vickers case as it seems to relate a lot to the topic Stepcorr (talk) 02:59, 8 April 2019 (UTC)