Also known as: felo de se · felon de se · felo-de-se · felon-de-se · suicide
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The intentional act of ending one's own life. The term encompasses both completed acts and attempts that expose the actor to criminal or civil consequences under applicable law.
Farid Farahani, delirious after surgery, threatened to jump from his hospital window. Nurse Faith Fitzgerald locked the window and door to stop him. Farid later sued for false imprisonment. The emergency circumstances justified the restraint without consent, so Faith faced no liability.
Felicia Fuentes killed her terminally ill partner under a mutual suicide agreement and then attempted her own death. At trial she raised an insanity defense. The court examined whether her mental condition at the time of the acts negated criminal responsibility.
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Forrest Falconer attempted suicide by overdose and survived. While hospitalized he confessed to police about a prior crime. The court assessed whether the confession was voluntary despite his weakened physical and mental state following the attempt.
Felicity French was sentenced to death. After she attempted suicide in prison, her lawyers challenged her competency to be executed. The court evaluated whether her mental state rendered her unable to understand the punishment or its purpose.
Fiona Foster's daughter died by suicide, leaving two young children. The maternal grandparents sought visitation rights over the surviving parent's objection. The court weighed the parent's fundamental liberty interest against the children's best interests.
Fusion Power's general counsel died by suicide shortly after giving legal advice on a regulatory matter. Prosecutors subpoenaed the law firm's notes of those conversations. The firm asserted that the attorney-client privilege survived the client's death.
It is an archaic term for the act of taking one's own life. Modern statutes and cases refer to suicide or self-killing rather than the Latin phrase.
No. A privilege exists to use reasonable force without consent when circumstances reasonably indicate an imminent risk of self-harm, as illustrated by emergency interventions to stop apparent suicide attempts.
Evidence of a suicide attempt may be relevant to the defendant's mental state at the time of the charged conduct and can support or undermine an insanity claim depending on the surrounding facts.
A post-attempt confession is admissible if it was voluntary under the totality of circumstances. The attempt itself does not automatically render later statements involuntary.
The attempt may trigger a competency hearing to determine whether the prisoner currently understands the nature and purpose of the death sentence.
…Oath was not uncontested even in Hippocrates' day; only the Pythagorean school of philosophers frowned upon the related act of suicide. Most Greek thinkers, on the other hand, commended abortion, at least prior to viability. See Plato, Republic, V, 461; Aristotle, Politics, VII, 1335b 25. For the Pythagoreans, however, it…