Also known as: deliberate intentions · deliberate intent
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A conscious purpose or aim to bring about a particular result or consequence. In homicide law this mental state supplies express malice when directed at causing death and supplies a form of implied malice when directed at causing great bodily injury.
Devon Drake, a wind-farm technician, believed coworker Diana Delgado had caused his demotion. He waited for a forecasted storm, disabled her safety-harness anchor, and then directed her onto a high platform. Diana fell to her death. The deliberate intention to cause her death satisfies the express-malice requirement for common-law murder.
Daniel Diaz locked junior analyst Dorothy Daniels in a conference room after she accused him of fraud. He struck her repeatedly in the head with a heavy stapler until she lost consciousness, then left without seeking help. She later died from a brain hemorrhage. The deliberate intention to inflict great bodily injury supplies implied malice for common-law murder.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Deliberate intention requires a conscious purpose to achieve death or great bodily injury. Reckless indifference instead involves awareness of an unjustifiably high risk to life without that specific aim. Both can support malice aforethought, but only the former is labeled express or implied malice under the intentional-harm categories.
Supporting sources
No. A jury may infer deliberate intention from the defendant's purposeful conduct, choice of weapon or method, timing, and motive even when the defendant later offers a self-serving statement that he only wanted to frighten the victim. The inference rests on objective circumstances showing a conscious objective to cause death or great bodily injury.
Supporting sources
No. Deliberate intention is shown by a conscious aim to cause the prohibited result. Premeditation may be relevant to grading murder under some statutes but is not an element of express or implied malice under the common-law definitions.
Supporting sources
Yes. A deliberate intention to cause great bodily injury constitutes implied malice and therefore satisfies the malice-aforethought element of common-law murder when the victim dies and no justifying or mitigating doctrine applies.
Supporting sources