Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
aforethought
adj. thought of in advance; deliberate; premeditated <malice aforethought>. see malice aforethought.
malice aforethought
The requisite mental state for common-law murder, encompassing any one of the following: (1) the intent to kill, (2) the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, (3) extremely reckless indifference to the value of human life (the so-called "abandoned and malignant heart"), or (4) the intent to commit a felony (which leads to culpability under the felony-murder rule). - Also termed premeditated malice; preconceived malice; malice prepense; malitia praecogitata. "Malice aforethought is the term which came into use during medieval times to indicate the mental element necessary in the felony of murder. It has been the subject of voluminous jurisprudential enquiry ...." J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 27 (16th ed. 1952). "Every intentional killing is with malice aforethought unless under circumstances sufficient to constitute (1) justification, (2) excuse, or (3) mitigation." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 58 (3d ed. 1982).