| accessory after the fact | A person who, knowing a felony to have been committed by another, receives, relieves, comforts, or assists the felon in order to enable him/her to escape from punishment, or the like.
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| accessory before the fact | One who orders, counsels, encourages, or otherwise aids and abets another to commit a felony and who is not present at the commission of the offense.
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| accomplice | One who knowingly, voluntarily, and with common intent unites with the principal offender in the commission of a crime.
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| acquittal | The legal and formal certification of the innocence of a person who has been charged with a crime.
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| actus reus | The guilty act.
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| affiant | The person who makes and subscribes an affidavit.
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| affirm(ed) | Disposition in which the appellate court agrees with the trial court.
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| aggravated assault | Criminal assault accompanied with circumstances that make it more severe such as the intent to commit another crime or the intent to cause serious bodily injury.
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| aggravated battery | A criminal battery accompanied by circumstances that make it more severe such as the use of a deadly weapon or the fact that the battery resulted in serious bodily harm.
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| aggravated robbery | Robbery committed by a person who either carries a dangerous weapon or inflicts bodily harm on someone during the robbery.
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| aggravating factor | A fact or circumstance that increases the degree of liability or culpability for a criminal act.
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| aid and abet | Help, assist, or facilitate the commission of a crime; promote the accomplishment thereof; help in advancing or bringing it about; or encourage, counsel, or incite as to its commission.
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| appeal | Tests the sufficiency of the verdict under the legal parameters or rules.
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| arraignment | A court hearing where the information contained in an indictment is read to the defendant.
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| arrest | The formal taking of a person, usually by a police officer, to answer criminal charges.
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| arson | At common law, arson had four requisites. First, there must be some actual burning (though this requirement did not include destruction of the building or even of any substantial part of the building). Second, the burning must be malicious (negligence is not sufficient). Third, the object burned must be a dwelling house. Fourth and finally, the house burned must be the habitation of another.
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| asportation | The act of carrying away or removing property or a person.
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| assault | Intentional voluntary movement that creates fear or apprehension of an immediate unwanted touching; the threat or attempt to cause a touching, whether successful or not, provided the victim is aware of the danger.
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| assisted suicide | The intentional act of providing a person with the medical means or the medical knowledge to commit suicide.
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| attempt | To actually try to commit a crime and have the actual ability to do so.
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| bail | Court-mandated surety or guarantee that the defendant will appear at a future date if released from custody prior to trial.
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| battery | An intentional and unwanted harmful or offensive contact with the person of another; the actual intentional touching of someone with intent to cause harm, no matter how slight the harm.
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| bench trial | A case heard and decided by a judge.
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| bench warrant | The process issued by the court itself for the attachment or arrest of a person.
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| beyond a reasonable doubt | The requirement for the level of proof in a criminal matter in order to convict or find the defendant guilty. It is a substantially higher and more-difficult-to-prove criminal matter standard.
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| bilateral | Affecting or obligating both parties.
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| Bill of Rights | Set forth the fundamental individual rights government and law function to preserve and protect; the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
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| bodily injury | Physical damage to a person's body.
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| booking | Administrative step taken after an arrested person is brought to the police station that involves entry of the person's name, the crime for which the arrest was made, and other relevant facts on the police blotter.
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| brain death | When the body shows no response to external stimuli, no spontaneous movements, no breathing, no reflexes, and a flat reading on a machine that measures the brain's electrical activity.
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| breaking | In the law of burglary, the act of entering a building without permission.
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| bribery | The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.
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| burden of proof | Standard for assessing the weight of the evidence.
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| burglary | Breaking and entering into a structure for the purpose of committing a crime.
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| by a preponderance of evidence | The weight or level of persuasion of evidence needed to find the defendant liable as alleged by the plaintiff in a civil matter.
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| carjacking | The crime of stealing a motor vehicle while the vehicle is occupied.
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| case (common) law | Published court opinions of federal and state appellate courts; judge-created law in deciding cases, set forth in court opinions.
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| causation | Intentional act resulted in harm or injury to the complaining plaintiff.
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| chain conspiracy | A single conspiracy in which each person is responsible for a distinct act within the overall plan.
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| circumstantial evidence | Evidence that suggests a conclusion.
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| clear and convincing | Evidence that indicates that a thing to be proved is highly probable or reasonably certain.
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| commingling | A term for mixing a client's funds with the attorney's personal funds without permission; an ethical violation.
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| common law | Judge-made law, the ruling in a judicial opinion.
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| community service | A criminal sentence requiring that the offender perform some specific service to the community for some specified period of time.
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| complaint | Document that states the allegations and the legal basis of the plaintiff 's claims. Also, a charge, preferred before a magistrate having jurisdiction, that a person named has committed a specified offense, with an offer to prove the fact, to the end that a prosecution may be instituted.
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| complicity | A state of being an accomplice; participation in guilt.
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| concurrence | Another view or analysis written by a member of the same reviewing panel. Also, a meeting or coming together of a guilty act and a guilty mind.
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| concurrent sentences | Two or more sentences of jail time to be served simultaneously.
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| consecutive sentences | Two or more sentences of jail time to be served in sequence.
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| consent | All parties to a novation must knowingly assent to the substitution of either the obligations or parties to the agreement. Also, voluntarily yielding the will to another.
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| conspiracy | By agreement, parties work together to create an illegal result, to achieve an unlawful end.
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| Constitution | The organic and fundamental law of a nation or state, which may be written or unwritten, establishing the character and conception of its government, laying the basic principles to which its internal life is to be conformed, organizing the government, regulating functions of departments, and prescribing the extent to which a nation or state can exercise its powers.
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| contempt | A willful disregard for or disobedience of a public authority.
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| conversion | An overt act to deprive the owner of possession of personal property with no intention of returning the property, thereby causing injury or harm.
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| conviction | Results from a guilty finding by the jury in a criminal trial.
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| corpus delicti | [Latin "body of the crime"] The fact of the transgression or the physical evidence of a crime such as the body of a murder victim.
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| counterfeiting | Forging, copying, or imitating without a right to do so and with the purpose of deceiving or defrauding.
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| court rules | Regulations with the force of law governing practice and procedure in the various courts.
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| crime | Any act done in violation of those duties that an individual owes to the community, and for the breach of which the law has provided that the offender shall make satisfaction to the public.
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| criminal trespass | The offense committed by one who, without license or privilege to do so, enters or surreptitiously remains in any building or occupied structure.
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| cross-examination | Occurs when the opposing attorney asks the witness questions.
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| curtilage | Out buildings that are directly and intimately connected with the habitation and in proximity thereto and the land or grounds surrounding the dwelling that are necessary and convenient and habitually used for family purposes and carrying on domestic employment.
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| damages | Money paid to compensate for loss or injury.
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| deadly force | Defense available in cases involving the defense of persons, oneself, or another. It is a violent action known to create a substantial risk of causing death or serious bodily harm.
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| deadly weapon | Any firearm or other device, instrument, material, or substance that, from the manner in which it is used or is intended to be used, is calculated or likely to produce death.
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| defendant | The party against whom a lawsuit is brought.
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| defense | Legally sufficient reason to excuse the complained of behavior.
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| defense of others | A justification defense available if one harms or threatens another while defending a third person.
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| demonstrative evidence | Any object, visual aid, model, scale drawing, or other exhibit designed to help clarify points in the trial.
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| depraved heart murder | A murder resulting from an act so reckless and careless of the safety of others that it demonstrates the perpetrator's complete lack of regard for human life.
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| desist | To cease an activity.
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| detain | To restrain, arrest, check, delay, hinder, hold, keep, or retain in custody.
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| detention | The act of keeping back, restraining, or withholding, either accidentally or by design, a person or thing.
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| deter | To turn aside, discourage, or prevent from acting.
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| determinate sentence | A sentence for a fixed length of time rather than for an unspecified duration.
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| diminished capacity | The doctrine that recognizes that an accused does not have to be suffering from a mental disease to have impaired mental capacities at the time the offense was committed.
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| direct evidence | Evidence that establishes a particular fact without resort to other testimony or evidence.
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| direct examination | Occurs when the attorney questions his or her own witness.
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| discovery | The pretrial investigation process authorized and governed by the rules of civil procedure; the process of investigation and collection of evidence by litigants; process in which the opposing parties obtain information about the case from each other; the process of investigation and collection of evidence by litigants.
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| dismissal | An order or judgment finally disposing of an action, suit, motion, or other without trial of the issues involved.
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| disorderly conduct | Behavior that tends to disturb the public peace, offend public morals, or undermine public safety.
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| double jeopardy | Being tried twice for the same act or acts.
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| Due Process Clause | Refers to two aspects of the law: procedural, in which a person is guaranteed fair procedures, and substantive, which protects a person's property from unfair governmental interference or taking.
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| duress | Unreasonable and unscrupulous manipulation of a person to force him to agree to terms of an agreement that he would otherwise not agree to. Also, any unlawful threat or coercion used by a person to induce another to act (or to refrain from acting) in a manner that he or she otherwise would not do.
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| dwelling | A house or other structure that is used or intended for use as a residence.
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| elements of the crime | Those constituent parts of a crime that must be proved by the prosecution to sustain a conviction.
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| embezzlement | The fraudulent appropriation of property by one lawfully entrusted with its possession.
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| enhancements | Added factors to a criminal charge that make the charge carry greater weight.
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| entrapment | An act of a law enforcement official to induce or encourage a person to commit a crime when the defendant expresses no desire to proceed with the illegal act.
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| espionage | Spying or the gathering, transmitting, or losing of information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation.
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| evidence | Any fact, testimony, or physical object that tends to prove or disprove allegations raised in a case; must be reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.
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| exclusionary rule | Circumstances surrounding the seizure do not meet warrant requirements or exceptions; items seized deemed fruit of the poisonous tree are excluded from trial evidence.
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| excuse | A reason alleged for doing or not doing a thing.
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| excused for cause | Process of excusing jurors for bias, prejudices, and legitimate reasons as well, such as sickness, job commitment, or others.
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| extortion | The obtaining of property from another induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right.
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| false imprisonment | Any deprivation of a person's freedom of movement without that person's consent and against his or her will, whether done by actual violence or threats.
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| false pretenses | False representations of material past or present facts, known by the wrongdoer to be false, made with the intent to defraud a victim into passing title in property to the wrongdoer.
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| felony | A crime punishable by more than a year in prison or death.
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| felony murder rule | The doctrine holding that any death resulting from the commission or attempted commission of a dangerous felony is murder.
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| fiduciary | One who owes to another the duties of good faith, trust, confidence, and candor.
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| fine | A pecuniary punishment or penalty imposed by lawful tribunal upon a person convicted of a crime or misdemeanor.
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| forgery | The process of making or adapting objects or documents with the intention to deceive.
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| fruit of the poisonous tree | Evidence tainted based on illegal seizure may not be used in a trial.
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| gambling | Making a bet. Such occurs when there is a chance for profit if a player is skillful and lucky.
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| general intent | An unjustifiable act; reckless conduct.
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| grand jury | A jury of inquiry who are summoned and returned by the sheriff to each session of the criminal courts and whose duty is to receive complaints and accusations in criminal cases, hear evidence, and decide if the defendant should stand for trial.
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| guilty | A verdict only available in criminal cases in which the jury determines that the defendant is responsible for committing a crime.
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| habeas corpus | A writ employed to bring a person before a court, most frequently to ensure that the party's imprisonment or detention is not illegal.
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| habitation | Place of abode; dwelling place; residence.
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| harmful error | An error by the court that has an identifiable negative impact on the trial to such a degree that the constitutional rights of a party are compromised.
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| harmless error | Standard of review that has not caused legal error requiring reversal of the trial court's decision.
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| hate crime | A crime motivated by the victim's race, color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin.
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| hearsay | An out-of-court statement offered to prove a matter in contention in the lawsuit.
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| heat of passion | Rage, terror, or furious hatred suddenly aroused by some immediate provocation.
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| homicide | The killing of a human being by the act or omission of another.
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| impartial jury | A jury that is unbiased and does not favor one party or the other.
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| incapacitation | Punishment by imprisonment, mutilation, or death.
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| inchoate crime | An incipient crime; an act that generally leads to a crime.
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| indeterminate sentence | A sentence of an unspecified duration such as one for a term of 5 to 10 years.
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| indictment | A written list of charges issued by a grand jury against a defendant in a criminal case.
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| indigent | One who is needy and poor, or one who does not have sufficient property to furnish him a living or anyone able to support him or to whom he is entitled to look for support.
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| inducement | The act or process of enticing or persuading another person to take a certain course of action.
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| infancy | The state of a person who is under the age of legal majority.
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| inference | A conclusion reached by considering other facts and deducing a logical consequence.
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| information | States that the magistrate determines there is sufficient cause to make an arrest and also sets forth the formal charges sought by the prosecution.
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| infraction | A violation of a statute for which the only sentence authorized is a fine and for which violation is expressly designated as an infraction.
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| infringement | An act that interferes with an exclusive right.
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| intangible property | Personal property that has no physical presence but is represented by a certificate or some other instrument such as stocks or trademarks.
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| interrogation | The process of questions propounded by police to a person arrested or suspected to seek solution of crime.
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| intoxication | Under the influence of alcohol or drugs which may, depending on the degree of inebriation, render a party incapable of entering into a contractual relationship or of acting in the manner in which an ordinarily prudent and cautious person would have acted under similar circumstances.
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| involuntary manslaughter | Homicide in which there is no intention to kill or do grievous bodily harm but that is committed with criminal negligence or during the commission of a crime not included within the felony murder rule.
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| irresistible impulse | An impulse to commit an unlawful or criminal act that cannot be resisted or overcome because mental disease has destroyed the freedom of will, the power of self-control, and the choice of actions.
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| judgment | The court's final decision regarding the rights and claims of the parties.
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| jurisdiction | The power or authority of the court to hear a particular classification of case. Also, the place or court that may hear a case, based on subject matter and/or geographic area.
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| jury panel | Group of people called to court from which a jury is chosen.
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| justification | A lawful reason for acting or failing to act.
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| kidnapping | The unlawful confinement, removal, or hiding of a person against his/her will for the purpose of holding the person to obtain a ransom, to serve as a hostage, to facilitate the commission of a felony, to inflict harm or terrorize the victim, or to interfere with the performance of a governmental or political function.
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| larceny | The common law crime of taking property of another without permission.
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| larceny by trick | Larceny in which the taker misleads the rightful possessor, by a misrepresentation of fact, into giving up possession of the property in question.
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| loitering | To stand around or move about slowly; to linger or spend time idly.
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| M'Naghten Rule | The defendant alleges he or she lacked capacity to form criminal intent.
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| magistrate | A public civil officer, possessing such power—legislative, executive, or judicial—as the government appointing him may ordain.
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| malice aforethought | The prior intention to kill the victim or anyone else if likely to occur as a result of the actions or omissions.
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| malicious mischief | The act of willfully damaging or destroying the personal property of another; sometimes referred to as criminal mischief.
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| malum in se | An act that is prohibited because it is "evil in itself."
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| malum prohibitum | An act that is prohibited by a rule of law.
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| mandatory sentence | A sentence set by law with no discretion for the judge to individualize punishment.
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| manslaughter | The unlawful killing of a human being without premeditation.
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| mayhem | The maiming, dismembering, disabling, or disfigurement of the body part of another with the intent to harm or cause permanent injury.
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| mens rea | "A guilty mind"; criminal intent in committing the act.
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| misdemeanor | A lesser crime punishable by less than a year in jail and/or a fine.
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| mistrial | A trial that has been terminated prior to a normal conclusion.
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| mitigating circumstance (mitigating factor) | A fact or situation that does not justify or excuse a wrongful act or offense but that reduces the degree of culpability and thus may reduce the damages in a civil case or the punishment in a criminal case.
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| mitigating factor | See mitigating circumstance.
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| moral turpitude | An act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community.
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| motive | Something such as willful desire that causes an individual to act.
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| murder | The killing of a human being with intent.
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| necessity | A justification defense for a person who acts in an emergency and commits a crime that is less harmful than the harm that would have occurred but for the person's actions.
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| nolo contendere | Latin for "I do not wish to contend"; to plead no contest.
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| oath | Any form of attestation by which a person signifies that he/she is bound in conscience to perform an act faithfully and truthfully.
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| obscenity | The quality or state of being morally abhorrent or socially taboo, especially as a result of referring to or depicting sexual or excretory functions.
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| overt act | Identifiable commission or omission, an intentional tort requirement.
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| owner | One who has the right to possess, use, and convey something.
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| parental kidnapping | The kidnapping of a child by one parent in violation of the other parent's custody or visitation rights.
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| parolee | Ex-prisoner who has been released from jail, prison, or other confinement after having served part of a criminal sentence.
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| peremptory challenge (peremptory jury strike) | An attorney's elimination of a prospective juror without giving a reason; limited to a specific number of strikes.
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| perjury | The willful assertion as to a matter of fact, opinion, belief, or knowledge, made by a witness in a judicial proceeding as part of his/her evidence, either upon oath or in any form allowed by law to be substituted for an oath, whether such evidence is given in open court, in an affidavit, or otherwise, such assertion being material to the issue or point of inquiry and known to such witness to be false.
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| personal property | Movable or intangible thing not attached to real property.
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| plain error | A decision or action by the court that appears to a reviewing court to have been unquestionably erroneous.
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| plaintiff | The party initiating legal action.
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| plea bargain | The process whereby the accused and the prosecutor in a criminal case work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case subject to court approval.
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| possession | Having or holding property in one's power; controlling something to the exclusion of others.
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| preliminary hearing | An appearance by both parties before the court to assess the circumstances and validity of the restraining application. Also, a hearing by a judge to determine whether a person charged with a crime should be held for trial.
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| premeditation | Conscious consideration and planning that precedes some act.
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| preponderance of the evidence | The weight or level of persuasion of evidence needed to find the defendant liable as alleged by the plaintiff in a civil matter.
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| principal in the first degree | The criminal actor; the one who actually commits the crime, either by his/her own hand, by an inanimate agency, or by an innocent human agent.
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| principal in the second degree | The one who is present at the commission of a criminal offense and aids, counsels, commands, or encourages the principal in the first degree in the commission of that offense.
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| probable cause | The totality of circumstances leads one to believe certain facts or circumstances exist; applies to arrests, searches, and seizures.
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| probation | A court-imposed criminal sentence that, subject to stated conditions, releases a convicted person into the community instead of sending the criminal to prison.
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| probative evidence | Evidence that tends to or actually proves the fact.
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| procedural due process | These requirements mandate scrupulous adherence to the method or mechanism applied. Notice and fair hearing are the cornerstones of due process, though certainly not the only consideration.
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| prosecutor | Attorney representing the people or plaintiff in criminal matters.
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| prostitution | The act of performing, or offering or agreeing to perform, a sexual act for hire.
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| protective frisk | A pat-down search of a suspect by police, designed to discover weapons for the purpose of ensuring the safety of the officer and others nearby.
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| prurient interest | Characterized by or arousing inordinate or unusual sexual desire.
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| puffing | The use of an exaggerated opinion—as opposed to a false statement—with the intent to sell a good or service.
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| question of fact | An issue that has not been predetermined and authoritatively answered by the law; a disputed issue to be resolved by the jury in a jury trial or by the judge in a bench trial.
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| question of law | An issue to be decided by the judge concerning the application or interpretation of the law.
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| rape | Unlawful sexual intercourse with a person without consent.
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| real property | Land and all property permanently attached to it, such as buildings.
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| reasonable suspicion | Such suspicion that will justify an officer, for Fourth Amendment purposes, in stopping a defendant in a public place, as having knowledge sufficient to induce an ordinarily prudent and cautious person under the circumstances to believe that criminal activity is at hand.
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| receiving stolen property | The crime of acquiring or controlling property known to have been stolen by another person.
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| rehabilitation | Restoring a person to his or her former capacity.
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| relevant evidence | Evidence that makes the existence of any fact more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.
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| remand(ed) | Disposition in which the appellate court sends the case back to the lower court for further action.
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| renunciation | Abandonment of effort to commit a crime.
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| retreat rule | The doctrine holding that the victim of a crime must choose to retreat instead of using deadly force if certain circumstances exist.
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| retribution | Punishment based on just deserts.
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| reverse(d) (reversal) | Disposition in which the appellate court disagrees with the trial court.
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| reversible error | An error that affects a party's substantive rights or the case's outcome, and thus is grounds for reversal if the party properly objects.
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| riot | An unlawful disturbance of the peace by an assembly of usually three or more persons acting with a common purpose in a violent or tumultuous manner that threatens or terrorizes the public.
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| robbery | The direct taking of property from another through force or threat.
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| scienter | A degree of knowledge that makes a person legally responsible for his or her act or omission.
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| search warrant | Issued after presentation of an affidavit stating clearly the probable cause on which the request is based. In particular, it is an order in writing, issued by a justice or other magistrate, in the name of the state, and directed to a sheriff, constable, or other officer authorizing him to search for and seize any property that constitutes evidence of the commission of a crime, contraband, or the fruits of the crime.
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| self-defense | A defendant's legal excuse that the use of force was justified.
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| self-incrimination | Acts or declarations either as testimony at trial or prior to trial by which one implicates himself or herself in a crime.
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| sentence | The judgment formally pronounced by the court or judge upon the defendant after his/her conviction in a criminal prosecution, imposing the punishment to be inflicted, usually in the form of a fine, incarceration, or probation.
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| sentencing | The post-conviction stage of the criminal justice process in which the defendant is brought before the court for imposition of sentence.
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| serious bodily injury | Serious physical impairment of the human body; especially, bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment.
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| settlement | A negotiated termination of a case prior to a trial or jury verdict.
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| signatory | A party that signs a document, becoming a party to an agreement.
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| sodomy | Oral or anal copulation between humans.
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| solicitation | The crime of inducing or encouraging another to commit a crime.
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| split sentence | A sentence where part of the time is served in confinement and the rest is spent on probation.
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| stalking | The act or offense of following or loitering near another with the purpose of annoying or harassing that person or committing a further crime.
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| standing | Legally sufficient reason and right to object.
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| stare decisis | (Latin) "Stand by the decision." Decisions from a court with substantially the same set of facts should be followed by that court and all lower courts under it; the judicial process of adhering to prior case decisions; the doctrine of precedent whereby once a court has decided a specific issue one way in the past, it and other courts in the same jurisdiction are obligated to follow that earlier decision in deciding cases with similar issues in the future.
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| statutory law | Derived from the Constitution in statutes enacted by the legislative branch of state or federal government; Primary source of law consisting of the body of legislative law.
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| statutory rape | The sexual intercourse with a female who is under a certain age (usually 14 to 18, depending on the state). The minor child is considered legally incapable of consenting.
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| stop and frisk | The situation where police officers who are suspicious of an individual run their hands lightly over the suspect's outer garments to determine if the person is carrying a concealed weapon.
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| strict liability | The defendant is liable without the plaintiff having to prove fault. Also, liability that is based on the breach of an absolute duty rather than negligence or intent.
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| subpoena | A document that is served upon an individual under authority of the court, and orders the person to appear at a certain place and certain time for a deposition, or suffer the consequences; an order issued by the court clerk directing a person to appear in court.
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| substantial capacity | The term used in the definition of legal insanity proposed by the Model Penal Code.
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| suppression hearing | A pretrial proceeding in criminal cases in which a defendant seeks to prevent the introduction of evidence alleged to have been seized illegally.
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| suspended sentence | A sentence postponed so that the defendant is not required to serve time in the absence of certain circumstances.
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| tangible evidence | Evidence that can be touched, picked up.
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| tangible property | Personal property that can be held or touched such as furniture or jewelry.
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| terrorism | The use or threat of violence to intimidate or cause panic, especially as a means of affecting political conduct.
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| theft | The taking of property without the owner's consent.
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| title | The legal link between a person who owns property and the property itself; legal evidence of a person's ownership rights.
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| totality of the circumstances | A legal standard that requires focus on the entire situation and not on one specific factor.
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| trade secret | Property that is protected from misappropriation such as formulas, patterns, and compilations of information.
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| treason | A breach of allegiance to one's government, usually committed through levying war against such government or by giving aid or comfort to the enemy.
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| trespassory taking | The act of seizing an article from the possession of the rightful owner.
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| unilateral | One-sided; relating to only one of two or more persons or things.
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| uttering | The crime of presenting a false or worthless document with the intent to harm or defraud.
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| vagrancy | The act of going about from place to place by a person without visible means of support, who is idle, and who, though able to work for his/her maintenance, refuses to do so, but lives without labor or on the charity of others.
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| vandalism | Such willful or malicious acts are intended to damage or destroy property.
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| vehicular homicide | The killing of another person by one's unlawful or negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
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| verdict | Decision of the jury following presentation of facts and application of relevant law as they relate to the law presented in the jury instructions.
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| voir dire | The process of selecting a jury for trial.
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| voluntary manslaughter | An act of murder reduced to manslaughter because of extenuating circumstances such as adequate provocation or diminished capacity.
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| warrant | Issued after presentation of an affidavit stating clearly the probable cause on which the request is based.
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| Wharton's rule | The doctrine that an agreement by two or more persons to commit a particular crime cannot be prosecuted as a conspiracy if the crime could not be committed except by the actual number of participants involved.
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| wheel conspiracy | A conspiracy in which a single member or group separately agrees with two or more other members or groups.
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| writ | A written order of a judge requiring specific action by the person or entity to whom the writ is directed.
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| writ of habeas corpus | Literally "you should have the body"; application for extraordinary relief or a petition for rehearing of the issue on the basis of unusual facts unknown at the time of the trial.
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