Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/172

* MURDEB. 140 MTJRDOCK. of the body. During the Xoriiian period, this morth (or secret) splaying of .Saxon times be- came the murdrum — the homicide of the very worst kind, and was distinguished by Glanville from a mere homicidium, or open killing. For a considerable time, murdrum signiticd the fine imposed by the Crown on any hundred in which a man was slain, as well as the killing itself. This fine — originally 40 marks, of which 40 went to the King and (> to the kinsfolk of the deceased — could be avoided by the production of the slay- er, or by proof that the slain man was an English- man and not of Frauco-Xorman race. Furnishing such |)roof was known as F.nglishry. From the time that Englishry was aliolislicd in 1348, murder bears the single meaning of unlawful liomicide of the worst species, which subjects the slayer to capital punishment. The next step in the history of murder as a term of English law, according to the best au- thorities, "consists in the ado|)tion of the ex- pression 'malice aforethought,' as the character- istic specific distinction of murder as distin- guished from other kinds of homicide." This came about from the forms of the special find- ings of the jury in prosecutions for homicide. In order to entitle the slayer to a pardon under the Statute of tlloucester (6 Ed. I., c. 9, a.d. 1278), it was necessary for the jury to find that he acted "in .self-defense and not by fehmy or of malice aforethought." During the next two cen- turies and a half, the modern distinction tjetween willful murder and manslaughter (q.v.) was de- veliiped, as appears by a statute of 1.531 (23 H. '1I1.. c. 1. § 3), which takes away the benefit of clergy (q.v.) in eases of "willful murder of malice prepense." The first element in the crime is unlawfulnes.s, as distinguislied fnmi the killing which is justifiable or excusable homicide. (See HoMKiDE and .IrsTiKi. i.E Homicide.) Not only must the killing be unlawful, liut the person killed must be a "reasonable creature in being." Accordingly, the killing of an unborn child is not murder at common law, hut is abortion (q.v.). The other essential element in murder is the malice aforethought with which the killing is done. This requires, first of all. sanity and discretion on the part of the slayer. An idiot, a lunatic (q.v.), or an infant (q.v.) below the age of discretion cannot commit murder. While malice aforethought is essential to the crime of murder, the law does not require the lap-^e of any prescribed time Iv'twcen the formation of the intention to kill and the killing. It is suf- ficient that the murdennis intenti(ui precedes and accompanies the act of homicide. If the will ac- companies the act a moment antecedent to the act itself which causes death, this makes the olTcnse murder as certainly as if a day inter- vened between the willing and the doing. The maliie in case of nnirder must be a<, in contradistinction to implied malice. This doc* not mean, bnwever, that the slayer must actually have intended to kill his virtiiM. nor that he l)ore toward bim a settled and malignant ill-will. Hence if one shoots nt A. and misses him, hut kills B, this is nnir- der, because of the previous felonious intent, which the law transfer^* from one to the other. So if one lays poison for .. and B. against whom the poisoner had no felonious intent, takes it, and is killed, this is murder. In short, the idea of malice aforethought is not spite or malevolence to the deceased in particular, but evil design in general ; not premeditated jxrsonal hatred or revenge toward the person killed, so much as a deliberately unlawful purpose which, if perse- vered in, must produce mischief. At the common law the procuring of a jx-rson to commit suicide (q.v.) is murder if the suicide is accomplished. So it is said in the books that if two persons agree to conunit suicide, and attempt to carry their design into execution, but only one dies, the survivor is guilty of murder if be were pres-' ent at the commission of the suicide; otherwise he is an accessory before the fact. The conuuon law knew nothing of degrees of murder. If the homicide was committed unlaw- fully and with malice aforethought, the slayer was a murderer, and, upon c<mviction, liable to capital punishment. This penalty has been thought too severe for some kinds of murder, and a number of our States have divided the offense into two degrees, continuing capital punishment for the first <legree, and punishing the second de- gree with ini])risonment. While these statutes dill'er in detail, they agree in limiting the defini- tion of murder in the first degree to those cases where the killing was done in a willful, deliberate, premeditated, or particularly cruel manner, or while engaged in the commission of some heinous felony, such as arson, and in some States rape and burglary. Consult: Bishop, Xetc Criminal Lau- (Chicago, 1802) ; Stephen, History of the Crimimil Law of England (London, 1883); Wharton, Criminal Law (Philadelphia, 180G) ; Clark and Marshall, Law of Crimes (Saint Paul, HlflO) ; and authorities referred to under Crim- inal Law. MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, The. . tale by Edgar A. Poe, which appeared in (iraham's Magazine in 1841, and became a model for later detective stories. The story opens with newspaper accounts of a horrible murder in Paris of an old lady and her daughter. The writer and a friend visit the house, and the friend ascertains from the appearance of the room that the murderer was an orang-outang escaped from its keeper. MUR'DOCH, .LMES Edward (1811-93). An American actor, born in Philadelphia. Ilis first appearance on the stage was in his native city in 18211. In 1833 he acted with Fanny Kemble during her tour in America, and in IS.'iG played with some success at the Haymarkct Theatre in London. During the Civil War in America he devoted himself to caring for sick and wounded soldiers, and gave popular readings for the benefit of the Unite<l States Sanitary Commission. Sub- sequently he was professor of elocution in the Cincinnati College of Music. Joseph .TefTcrson characterizes his acting as "not only extremely versatile, but entirely original." His greatest sue^'csses were in comedy and lighter tragedy. With William Russell he published Orllophnnt/, or Culture of the Voice (lS4r)) : and The f^lagc (iss;n). . ' MURDOCK, .Tame.s ( 177fi-I8.56) . An Ameri- can scholar, bom in Westbrook. Conn., and edu- cated at Yale, class of 1797. He taught school in New Haven and at Oneida .cademy, now Hamilton College, studied for the ministry, was licensed in ISOl. preached for thirteen years in the Congregational Church of Princeton, Mass.,