DeKalb County v. Smith

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• ruling that the court erred in failing to clearly define the degrees of murder for the jury
• ruling that the court erred in failing to clearly define the degrees of murder for the jury
• noting that without malice aforethought, “a killing would be only manslaughter, if criminal at all”
• explaining that the purpose behind enactment of the statute specifying degrees of murder was to “separate,” for purposes of punishment, first-degree murder offenses
• “Murder is where a person of sound memory and discretion unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being, in the peace of the state, with malice prepense or aforethought, either express or implied.”
• “Murder is where a person of sound memory and discretion unlawfully kills any reasonable creature in being, in the peace of the state, with malice prepense or aforethought, either express or implied.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).