Also known as: weapons · arm · arms
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An instrument or object used in a manner calculated or likely to cause death or serious bodily injury.
Wilma Wright became enraged during an argument and plunged a kitchen knife into Wallace Webb's chest. The prosecution introduced evidence that the blade struck a vital area. The factfinder could infer from the intentional use of the knife that Wilma acted with malice aforethought.
Willow Walker swung a metal baseball bat at Wanda Weaver's head during a street confrontation. The blow fractured Wanda's skull. Under the Model Penal Code, Willow's purposeful use of the bat as a deadly weapon elevated the charge to aggravated assault.
Willa Whitman kept a loaded handgun in her bedside drawer for protection after repeated break-ins. A local ordinance later banned all handgun possession inside city limits. Whitman challenged the ban as violating her individual right to keep and bear arms.
Wallace Webb struck Willow West repeatedly with a lead pipe during a robbery. The blows caused fatal head trauma. The factfinder could permissively infer that Wallace intended to kill because he intentionally used an instrument likely to cause death.
Wanda Weaver entered a residence at night carrying a loaded revolver to commit theft. She was apprehended before completing the theft. Because she was armed with a deadly weapon during the course of the burglary, the offense was graded as a felony of the second degree.
Wellesley Media published an editorial criticizing a public official and describing corruption as a dangerous weapon. The official sued for libel. The court applied actual-malice standards to the publication that employed the term weapon metaphorically.
L. B. Sullivan is one of three elected Commissioners of the City of Montgomery, Alabama. He has duties including supervision of the Police Department. He brought this civil libel action against the New York Times Company and four individual petitioners who were Alabama clergymen. The suit sought $500,000 in damages based on a full-page advertisement entitled "Heed Their Rising Voices" that appeared in the New York Times on March 29, 1960. A jury in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County awarded Sullivan the full amount claimed against all petitioners. The Supreme Court of Alabama affirmed the judgment. The advertisement was signed by the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South. It described widespread non-violent demonstrations by Southern Negro students and an unprecedented wave of terror against them. Two paragraphs formed the basis of the claim. One alleged that after students sang on the State Capitol steps their leaders were expelled, truckloads of police ringed the Alabama State College Campus, and the dining hall was padlocked to starve students into submission. The other stated that Southern violators had bombed Dr. King's home, assaulted him, arrested him seven times, and charged him with perjury. The text appeared over the names of 64 persons. It was endorsed by the individual petitioners among others. Sullivan contended that the references to police referred to him in his supervisory capacity. Six Montgomery residents testified that they read the statements as referring to him. However, several statements were inaccurate. The students sang the National Anthem rather than "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." The expulsions were for a different incident. The dining hall was not padlocked. Dr. King had been arrested only four times. The bombings occurred before Sullivan's tenure with police efforts to apprehend the perpetrators. The Times published the advertisement for approximately $4800. It acted upon an order from a New York advertising agency. The agency provided a letter from A. Philip Randolph certifying authorization. The Times made no efforts to confirm its accuracy against its own news files. Sullivan served written demands for retraction on the petitioners pursuant to Alabama law. None of the individual petitioners responded as they had not authorized use of their names. The Times did not retract. It published a retraction only upon demand by Governor John Patterson after learning more facts. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to the separate petitions of the individual petitioners and the Times due to the importance of the constitutional issues involved.
View caseNo. The use of a deadly weapon directed at a vital body part merely permits the factfinder to draw an inference of intent to kill. The inference remains permissive and the prosecution must still prove malice aforethought beyond a reasonable doubt.
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A person commits aggravated assault by attempting to cause or purposely or knowingly causing bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon. The offense is graded as a felony of the third degree.
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Burglary becomes a felony of the second degree if the actor is armed with explosives or a deadly weapon during the course of committing the offense. The same grading applies when the burglary occurs in a dwelling at night.
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The Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms commonly used for self-defense, but the right is not unlimited. Prohibitions on possession by felons and the mentally ill, and restrictions on certain dangerous weapons, remain valid.
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…points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and…