As you\u2019re probably aware, the news has been full of news about killings lately\u2026 murders in many metropolitan areas are up by a fairly high percentage so far this year. Internationally, several prominent people have been murdered\/assassinated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve often wondered just exactly what the difference in murder and assassination really was. Most dictionary definitions suggest that \u201cassassination\u201d is usually associated with a well-known victim. Several sources indicate that assassination is almost exclusively reserved for murders in which someone is being killed primarily due to their title or role in an organization or movement. I think this is probably often, but certainly not always, true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess you could probably say that every assassination is a murder, but not every murder would be considered an assassination.\u00a0
The legal definition of murder in the United States includes killing with (1) \u201cmalice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, such as robbery or arson (first-degree murder)\u201d and (2) \u201cmurder by intent, but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder.)\u201d If I read this correctly, all assassinations are first-degree murders. It\u2019s interesting, that while I could find a \u201clegal\u201d definition of murder, I couldn\u2019t find any \u201clegal\u201d definition of assassination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, there are many opinions as to what constitutes an assassination. Usually assassination is used when someone important is murdered, but assassination isn\u2019t based on \u201cimportance.\u201d It is the removal of someone because of who they are, what they do or what they know. If someone is murdered for their wallet, or their car, that would not be an assassination. Assassination isn\u2019t about how important the victim was \u2014 it\u2019s about the motive for the murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, assassinations have become commonplace for us \u2014 we hear about them from around the globe on a more or less regular basis. Most of us can tick off a list of people that have been assassinated without having to think too hard\u2026 Julius Caesar, Malcom X, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Garfield, Huey Long, Medgar Evers, etc.
Often, news of these deaths is so shocking that people can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing, wearing or eating when they learned person had been murdered.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assassinations have become (an unwelcome) part of our world. I\u2019ve heard it said that assassination is the extreme form of censorship\u2026 probably true.\u00a0
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As you\u2019re probably aware, the news has been full of news about killings lately\u2026 murders in many metropolitan areas are up by a fairly high percentage so far this year. Internationally, several prominent people have been murdered\/assassinated. I\u2019ve often … Continue reading