Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Indictment de felony est contra pacem domini regis, coronam et dignitatem suam, in genere et non in individuo; quia in Anglia non est interregnum.
Indictment for felony is against the peace of our lord the king, his crown and dignity, in general and not in his individual person; because in England there is no interregnum.
appeal of felony
hist. a procedure by which a person accused another of a crime, demanded proof of innocence by wager of battle, or informed against an accomplice. - also termed appellum de felonia.
felony
n. A serious crime usu. punishable by imprisonment for more than one year or by death. ( Examples include murder, rape, arson, and burglary. At common law, a felony was an offense for which conviction involved the forfeiture of the defendant's lands or goods, or both, to the Crown. Treason was traditionally included in the term felony. - Also termed major crime; serious crime. Cf. MISDEMEANOR. "Felony, in the general acceptation of our English law, comprizes every species of crime, which occasioned at common law the forfeiture of lands or goods." 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 94 (1769). "Amongst indictable crimes, the common law singled out some as being so conspicuously heinous that a man adjudged guilty of any of them incurred - not as any express part of his sentence but as a consequence that necessarily ensued upon it - a forfeiture of property, whether of his lands or of his goods or of both (in the case of treason). Such crimes came to be called 'felonies.' The other, and lesser, crimes were known as 'transgressions' or 'trespasses,' and did not obtain their present name of misdemeanours until a much later date. A felony is, therefore, a crime which either involved by common law such a forfeiture, or else has been placed by statute on the footing of those crimes which did involve it." J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 93 (16th ed. 1952).
felony de se
See SUICIDE.
felony murder
Murder that occurs during the commission of a felony (esp. a serious one). - Also termed (in English law)
felony-murder rule
The doctrine holding that any death resulting from the commission or attempted commission of a felony is murder. ( Most states restrict this rule to inherently dangerous felonies such as rape, arson, robbery, or burglary. Cf. MISDEMEANOR-MANSLAUGHTER RULE. "[I]t seems fair to suggest that the future of felony murder is uncertain. England, where the doctrine originated, has abolished it. The Model Penal Code recommends its abolition except for the purpose of creating a rebuttable presumption of malice for killings perpetrated during the course of a felony. Although most states have not yet adopted this position, many of the judicial limitations on felony murder discussed above seem to insure that in many states it will be an unusual case in which one is convicted of felony murder, who absent this doctrine, would not have been convicted of murder." Arnold H. Loewy, Criminal Law in a Nutshell 46 (2d ed. 1987).
misprision of felony
Concealment or nondisclosure of someone else's felony. "In fact, whatever the law may be, it is not the general custom to prosecute for misprision of felony, even where a person who knows of a felony is questioned by the police and refuses to make a statement. Indeed, Stephen, writing in the nineteenth century, regarded the offence as 'practically obsolete'; and American courts have refused to recognise it as subsisting. But there have been four successful prosecutions in England during the last quarter-century ...." Glanville Williams, Criminal Law 424 (2d ed. 1961).
treason felony
English law. An act that shows an intention of committing treason, unaccompanied by any further act to carry out that intention. ( This offense usu. results in life imprisonment rather than the death penalty. Cf. TREASONABLE MISDEMEANOR.