Premeditation is a state of mind that causes deliberate injury or death to another person. It satisfies the mens rea requirement for certain types of beliefs. Evidence can be used to prove premeditation, such as making a deliberate decision to injure or kill someone or behaving in a way that shows a deliberate disregard for human life or safety. For charges like first-degree murder, premeditation must be proven.
When someone acts with premeditation, they are in a state of mind that causes deliberate injury or death to another person. When someone can be shown to have acted in this way, it satisfies the mens rea or “guilty mind” requirement that is necessary for certain types of beliefs. A number of different things can be used to provide evidence that someone acted premeditatedly and therefore deserves a more severe punishment.
One form of premeditation involves making a deliberate decision to injure or kill someone prior to a crime. For example, if someone puts barbed wire on a bike path at neck height with the intent to undermine and injure bikers so they stop using the path, that is premeditated malice. In this case, the person acts deliberately to cause harm and makes a conscious choice to do so before the crime. Similarly, someone who purchases a gun with the intention of shooting someone is also acting with a deliberate intent to kill.
Another form involves behaving in a way that shows a deliberate disregard for human life or safety. In this case, someone decides to be reckless, rather than acting rashly out of recklessness or lack of knowledge. This form of premeditation is used to charge people with severe penalties when they kill or injure people in the course of a crime such as a bank robbery. The argument is that the defendant acted with deliberate imprudence and thus demonstrated prescient malice.
Conversely, if someone strikes another person in the middle of an argument and that person is seriously injured or killed, this is not considered willful misconduct. The defendant did not plan ahead to inflict harm and did not behave in a manner that would be considered reckless. However, if someone can be shown to have provoked an argument with the aim of putting the opponent in a position to be hit, that would change the circumstances, because the person would have planned ahead.
For charges like first-degree murder, premeditation must be proven. These charges are differentiated from lesser charges where people accidentally kill people to create a set of escalating penalties. This reflects the idea that people who plan to kill and do it deliberately are more of a threat to society than people who kill accidentally.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
