CRIMINAL LAW
- Accessory After the Fact: A party who commits a crime by hiding the offender or aiding in their escape preventing punishment.
- Accessory Before the Fact: A party who ordered a crime to be committed but did not do it.
- Accomplice: A party who agrees to a crime as the main criminal or in accessory.
- Actus Reus: Latin phrase for a criminal act.
- Acquit: When a person accused of a crime is legally freed by a court generally as a result of lack of evidence. This decision cannot generally be appealed unless in a special circumstance.
- Aggravated Assault: an intentional threat against another person with a deadly weapon, or while in the commission of a felony, which creates a reasonable fear that violence or harm is about to happen.
- Alibi: Elsewhere; in another place. A term used to express a defense to a criminal prosecution, where the party accused, in order to prove that he could not have committed the crime with which he is charged, offers evidence to show that he was in another place at the time.
- Arraign: Consists of calling upon the accused by name, reading to him the charges in the arrest documents, demanding of him whether he pleads guilty or not guilty or, in misdemeanors, nolo contendere, and entering his plea.
- Arrest Warrant: A written order issued and signed by a judge directing a law enforcement officer to arrest the person named in it who is accused of an offense.
- Arson: Any person who willfully and unlawfully, or while in the commission of any felony, by fire or explosion, damages any dwelling, whether occupied or not, or its contents; or damages any structure, or contents thereof, where persons are normally present, such as: jails, prisons, or detention centers; hospitals, nursing homes, or other health care facilities; department stores, office buildings, business establishments, churches, or educational institutions during normal hours of occupancy; or other similar structures; or damages any other structure that he or she knew or had reasonable grounds to believe was occupied by a human being,
- Bail: The release of a person from legal custody by a written agreement that he shall appear at the time and place designated.
- Due Process: fair treatment through the judicial system.
- Felony: A crime punishable by death or confinement in prison.
- Felony Murder: committed when a person kills another human being while engaged in the commission, or attempted commission, of certain felonies.
- First Degree Murder: Premeditated murder or Felony Murder.
- Grand Jury: A special type of jury assembled to investigate whether criminal charges should be brought.
- Guilty: Responsible for committing a criminal offense.
- Incarceration: Imprisonment; confinement in a jail or penitentiary.
- Indictment: A formal accusation by a grand jury that charges a person with a crime.
- Jail: A place of confinement for persons awaiting trial and for persons sentenced to shorter terms of confinement for misdemeanors.
- Lesser Included Offense: A less serious criminal charge that includes some of the same elements as the original charge.
- Mens Rea: the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of a crime.
- Misdemeanor: Offenses punishable by fine not exceeding $1,000 or being jailed for a term not exceeding 12 months or a combination of fine and jail within these limits.
- Plea: Statement made by the defendant either as to his guilt or innocence to the charge made against him.
- Premeditated: pre-planned.
- Probable Cause: A reasonable ground to believe that a crime has been committed and that the person accused may have committed it.
- Probation: Allows a person convicted of some offense to remain free under a suspension of a jail sentence during good behavior and generally under the supervision of probation officer together with other restrictions as the court may impose.
- Search Warrant: An order in writing, issued by a judge, directed to a sheriff, commanding him to conduct a search to aid an official investigation.
- Second Degree Murder: acting with a "depraved mind" (without regard for human life); lacks premeditation or planning; does not necessarily require proof of the defendant's intent to kill.
- Sentence: The judgment formally pronounced by the judge upon the defendant after his conviction in a criminal prosecution, setting the punishment for the offense.
- Verdict: The formal decision or finding of guilt or innocence made by a judge.
