According to my teenaged kids, “corpus delicti” sounds like something that will get you in trouble if you write about it on a government-sponsored blog. It is, however, an issue that arises in criminal cases. The term “corpus delicti” (sometimes spelled corpus delecti) means the body of the crime. Black’s Law Dictionary 310 (5th ed. 1979); State v. Smith, 362 N.C. 583, 589 (2008). It refers to the substance of the crime, which ordinarily includes two elements: the act and the criminal agency of the act. Black’s at 310. Thus, it has been explained that the corpus delicti of murder includes proof of death and proof that the death resulted from the criminal agency of another. State v. Perdue, 320 N.C. 51, 56 (1987). Evidence of “criminal agency of another” means evidence showing that the victim died not from natural or accidental causes, but by the hand of another. Id. (evidence was sufficient that the infant victim's injuries were not accidental and that the corpus delicti was established); see also State v. Head, 79 N.C. App. 1, 9-11 (1986) (although the murder victim’s body was not found, the evidence showed that she was dead and that her death resulted from a criminal agency). The concept underpinning the rule grew out of early English cases. Smith, 362 N.C. at 590. In one, a defendant confessed to the murder of a missing man, implicating his mother and brother. All three were executed before the alleged victim was discovered alive. Public outrage over this [...]
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