Malice murder is a

criminal offense In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

in the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, committed when a

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

is done with express or implied malice.

Definition

According to Georgia law, express malice is "that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof." Malice is implied when "no considerable provocation appears and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart MH" The offense is similar to

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

in other states.

Notable examples

Kelly Gissendaner Kelly Renée Gissendaner ( née Brookshire; March 8, 1968 – September 30, 2015) was an American woman who was executed by the U.S. state of Georgia. Gissendaner had been convicted of orchestrating the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner ( ...

was found guilty of malice murder in 1998 and executed in 2015. *Members of the FEAR terrorist group were charged with malice murder in 2012. *Alberto Martinez was convicted of malice murder in 2004 in the murder of Richard T. Davis. * Stephen Anthony Mobley was convicted of both malice murder and

felony murder The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder: when someone is killed (regardless of intent to kill) in the commission of a dangerous or enumerated crime (called a felony in s ...

. He was

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in 2005. *

Justin Ross Harris Cooper Harris was a 22-month-old toddler who died of hyperthermia on June 18, 2014 in Vinings, Georgia. His father, Justin Ross Harris ("Ross"), had left him strapped in the rear-facing car seat of his SUV, where the toddler remained for approx ...

Marietta, Georgia Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest ...

, was convicted in November 2016 of malice murder and felony murder in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. In June 2022, his murder convictions were overturned. * Robert Aaron Long pleaded guilty to four counts of malice murder and felony murder in four of the deaths in the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, and is facing four more counts of malice murder and felony murder in the other four deaths. * Travis McMichael of

Brunswick, Georgia Brunswick () is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County in the U.S. state of Georgia. As the primary urban and economic center of the lower southeast portion of Georgia, it is the second-largest urban area on the Georgia coastline after Sa ...

, was convicted in November 2021 of malice murder in the February 2020

murder of Ahmaud Arbery On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was murdered during a racially motivated Hate crime laws in the United States, hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, Brunswick in Glynn ...

. * In early February 2021, rapper

Silentó Richard Lamar "Ricky" Hawk (born January 22, 1998), better known as Silentó () or Prince Silentó, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his 2015 debut single "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)", which charted at number thre ...

was arrested on charges of malice murder and felony murder. * Tiffany Nicole Moss was convicted in 2019 of malice murder in the 2012 murder of her 10-year old step-daughter, Emani Moss. Tiffany was subsequently sentenced to death.

References

{{reflist, 30em Killings by type Georgia (U.S. state) law