Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person who commits a crime or offense.
Paul Peterson called 911 after his neighbor was stabbed during a public dispute. Officers asked Paul whether the perpetrator remained nearby and what weapon had been used. Because the questions focused on locating the still-at-large assailant and protecting others, the statements were treated as nontestimonial.
After indictment, detectives arranged a lineup for Beverly. The perpetrator identified in the procedure was the same person later convicted of server intrusion. Because counsel was absent from this critical stage, the identification was suppressed.
A seventeen-year-old male had intercourse with a female under eighteen. The statute imposed liability only on the male perpetrator. The Court upheld the gender classification under equal protection analysis.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A gag order barred reporting of confessions and other information strongly implicative of the accused as the perpetrator. The press challenged the order as violating the First Amendment. The Supreme Court struck down the prior restraint.
McCleskey argued that the race of both the perpetrator and the victim produced racially disparate capital sentences. Statistical evidence showed Black defendants who killed white victims faced higher death-penalty rates. The Court rejected the claim absent proof of purposeful discrimination in his own case.
Phelps and his church picketed a marine's funeral with signs condemning the deceased's lifestyle. The family sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Court held the speech on a public sidewalk about a matter of public concern could not support liability against the perpetrators.
The principal in the first degree is the actual perpetrator who personally commits the criminal act. A principal in the second degree aids the crime while present at or near the scene. Accessories act before or after the offense but are not perpetrators themselves.
Yes. The term identifies the person who actually commits the offense. Inchoate liability or mere preparation does not make someone a perpetrator under traditional classifications.
The term means an individual who commits an act of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual assault against a tenant or immediate family member. A court order or conviction naming that person triggers lease-termination rights for the victim.
No. The common-law definition requires that the perpetrator be a man who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman not his wife. Female defendants therefore cannot be convicted of common-law rape regardless of the other facts.
…the stage has been reached at which suspicion, or more than suspicion, has in their view centred upon some person as the likely perpetrator of the crime, further interrogation of that person becomes very dangerous, and, if carried too far, e. g., to the point of extracting a confession by what amounts to cross-examination,…