Chapter XI: Legal Phrases of Criminal and Civil Law

Accessory--One who is not the chief actor in the perpetration of the offense, nor present in its performance, but is some way concerned therein, either before or after the fact committed.

Accessory Before the Fact--One who, knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the felon.

Accomplice--One who is in some way concerned in the commission of a crime, though not as a principal.

Administrator--A person authorized by court to manage and distribute the estate of an intestate, or of a testator, who has appointed no executor, or when the executor declines to act.

Alibi--Presence in another place than that described.

Alimony--The allowance which a husband by the order of court pays to his wife who lives apart from him for her maintenance. It may be _pendente lite_, _i.e._: during trial, or permanent, _i.e._: during their joint lives after termination of suit.

Answer--A defense in writing made by a defendant to the charges contained in a bill filed by the plaintiff against him.

Appeal--The removal of a cause from a court of inferior to one of superior jurisdiction for the purpose of obtaining a review and retrial.

Apprehension--The capture or arrest of a person on a criminal charge.

Arrests--Apprehending a person and detaining him in order that he may be forthcoming to answer to an alleged or suspected crime.

Assaults--An unlawful offer or attempt with force or violence to do a corporal hurt to another.

Assignee--One to whom the transfer is made.

Assignment--A transfer or making over to another of the whole of any property, real or personal, in possession or in action, or of any estate or right therein. An assignment is a transfer by writing and not by delivery.

Attachment--A writ issued by the court commanding the sheriff, or other proper officer, to attach the property, rights, credits, or effects of the defendant to satisfy the demands of the plaintiff.

Bastard--One born of an illicit connection and before the lawful marriage of its parents. One begotten and born out of lawful wedlock. A man is a bastard if born before the lawful marriage of his parents, but he is not a bastard if born after their marriage, although begotten before. A man is a bastard if born during coverture under such circumstances as to make it impossible that the husband of his mother can be his father, as if the husband has been absent on a sea-voyage for twelve months prior to his birth. A man is a bastard if born beyond a competent time after coverture has ceased, as twelve months after the death of the husband or after divorce. Most of the states provide that if a man marry a woman after she has borne children for him, that fact legitimizes the children.

Battery--An unlawful beating, or other wrongful physical violence or constraint, inflicted upon a human being without his consent.

Bigamy--A man who has two wives living at the same time, or a woman who has two husbands living at the same time. If more than two wives or two husbands, the proper term is polygamy.

Blackmail--In modern use, the extortion of money from a person by threats of accusation or exposure. The term originated in England and was first applied to those rents which were paid in grain or labor. They were called blackmail in distinction from white rents, which were paid in silver. The bands of marauders that infested the borders of England and Scotland about the middle of the sixteenth century levied contributions yearly from the inhabitants for alleged security and protection. This was called blackmail.

Bond--An obligation in writing under seal. It is usually for the payment of money upon certain conditions, as the malfeasance in office of the party for whose good conduct the bondsmen vouch, or the failure of a prisoner to appear in court for trial.

Bribery--The receiving or offering any undue reward by or to any person whomsoever, whose ordinary profession or business relates to the administration of public justice, in order to influence his behavior in office, and to incline him to act contrary to his duty, and the known rules of honesty and integrity.

Chastity--Purity from all unlawful intercourse. A woman may defend her chastity by taking the life of her assailant.

Coercion--Constraint, compulsion, force.

Cohabit--To live together in the same house claiming to be husband and wife.

Compounding a Felony--The act of a party injured in agreeing with a thief or felon that he will not prosecute him if he will return the goods stolen or in taking a reward not to prosecute.

_Corpus Delicti_--The essence of the crime; the body.

Embezzlement--The act of fraudulently removing and secreting personal property with the care and management of which the party has been entrusted, for the purpose of applying it to his own use.

Exemption--The right given by law to a debtor to hold a portion of his property free from liability to execution at the suit of a creditor, or to distress from rent.

False Pretenses; In Criminal Law--False representations of facts made with a fraudulent design to obtain money, goods, or merchandise, with intent to cheat. The representation must be of a present, existing state of things or a past event. An assurance with reference to a future transaction will not amount to a statutory false pretense.

Foeticide--Criminal abortion.

Forgery--The falsely making or materially altering with intent to defraud, any writing, which, if genuine, might apparently be of legal efficacy, or the foundation of legal liability. The statutes of most of the states define forgery with great particularity and reference should be made to them.

Guardian--One who has legally the case and management of the person or the estate, or both, of a child during minority.

Homicide--A killing under such circumstances of accident or necessity that the party is relieved from the penalty annexed to the commission of a felonious homicide.

Justifiable Homicide--A killing committed with full intent, but under such circumstances of duty as to render the act one proper to be performed. Self defense.

Felonious Homicide--A killing committed wilfully, and under such circumstances as to make it punishable.

Excusable Homicide--A killing under such circumstances of accident or necessity that the party is relieved from the penalty annexed to the commission of a felonious homicide.

Illicit--Unlawful.

Injunction--A prohibitory writ issued by a court of equity to restrain one of the parties to a suit in equity from doing an act which is deemed unjust or inequitable.

Manslaughter; Criminal Law--The unlawful killing of another without malice. Manslaughter differs from murder in lacking the essential elements of malice and premeditation. There being no premeditation, there can be no accessories before the fact. Manslaughter may be voluntary, as when the person intends to produce the injury, or involuntary, as that which occurs without the intention to inflict the injury, but in the performance of an unlawful act. The different grades of homicide are defined and their punishments fixed by the statutes of the various states.

Murder; Criminal Law--The wilful killing of any person, with malice aforethought. In nearly all states murder has been divided into degrees.

Parricide--The unlawful killing of father or mother, the murder of anyone to whom reverence is due.

Perjury--The wilful giving, under oath, in a judicial proceeding or court of justice, of false testimony material to the point at issue.

Poaching--Unlawful entering land in the night time, armed with intent to take or destroy game.

Rape--The carnal knowledge of a woman by a man forcibly and unlawfully and against her will. Man in this definition means a male of the human species of the age of fourteen and upwards.

Search Warrant--A warrant requiring the officer to whom it is addressed to search a house specified for property alleged to have been stolen and secreted therein. The officer must bring the goods if found and the body of the person occupying the premises, who must be named before the justice issuing the warrant or some other legally authorized officer.

Self-Defense--The protection of one’s person and property from injury. A man may repel force by force, of his person, property, habitation against anyone who attempts to commit a forcible felony, as murder, burglary, rape, arson, robbery. He is not required to retreat but may resist and even pursue his adversary until he has secured himself from all danger.

Treason--Against the United States, according to the Constitution, consists in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. It can only be committed by a person who owes allegiance to the government. In monarchies an attempt to kill the king is treason.

Vagrant--An idle person who has no settled home, who refuses to work and goes about begging, commonly called a tramp.

Verdict--The unanimous decision of a jury reported to the court on the case submitted to them in the trial of a case or cause.

Violence--The abuse of force; that force which is employed against the common right, against law and order and against public property.

Void--That which has no force or effect.

Voidable--That which has some force or effect, but which in consequence of some inherent quality may be legally annulled or avoided. An infant’s note or contract with an adult is a familiar example. The infant may avoid or confirm the contract upon coming of age.

Warrant--A writ issued by a justice of the peace or other authorized officer and directed to a constable or other officer of the law ordering him to arrest a person therein named charged with committing some offense and bring him before the justice.

Witness--One who testifies under oath to what he knows of his own knowledge not acquired by hearsay.

Without Prejudice--Anything said or done without prejudice is without affecting anyone’s rights in the controversy or question at issue.