(A) crim. law. A wicked intention to do an injury. It is not confined to the intention of doing an injury to any particular person, but extends to an evil design, a corrupt and wicked notion against some one at the time of committing the crime; as, if A intended to poison B, conceals a quantity of poison in an apple and puts it in the way of B, and C, against whom he had no ill will, and who, on the contrary, was his friend, happened to eat it, and die, A will be guilty of murdering C with malice aforethought. 2. Malice is express or implied. It is express, when the party evinces an intention to commit the crime, as to kill a man; for example, modern dueling. 3 Bulstr. 171. It is implied, when an officer of justice is killed in the discharge of his duty, or when death occurs in the prosecution of some unlawful design. 3. It is a general rule that when a man commits an act, unaccompanied by any circumstance justifying its commission, the law presumes he has acted advisedly and with an intent to produce the consequences which have ensued. Malice aforethought is deliberate premeditation. Vide Aforethought. (B) torts. The doing any act injurious to another without a just cause. 2. This term, as applied to torts, does not necessarily mean that which must proceed from a spiteful, malignant, or revengeful disposition, but a conduct injurious to another, though proceeding from an ill-regulated mind not sufficiently cautious before it occasions an injury to another. 3. Indeed in some cases it seems not to require any intention in order to make an act malicious. When a slander has been published, therefore, the pro-per question for the jury is, not whether the intention of the publication was to injure the plaintiff, but whether the tendency of the matter published, was so injurious. 4. Again, take the common case of an offensive trade, the melting of tallow for instance; such trade is not itself unlawful, but if carried on to the annoyance of the neighboring dwellings, it becomes unlawful with respect to them, and their inhabitants may maintain an action, and may charge the act of the defendant to be malicious. (C)
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In criminal law. In its legal sense, this word does not simply mean ill will against a person, but signifies a wrongful act done intentionally, without just cause or excuse. Bromage v. Prosser, 4 Barn. & C. 255. A conscious violation of the law (or the prompting of the mind to commit it) which operates to the prejudice of another person. About as clear, comprehensive, and correct a definition as the authorities afford is that “malice is a condition of the mind which shows a heart regardless of social duty and fatally bent on mischief, the existence of which is inferred from acts committed or words spoken.” Harris v. State, 8 Tex. App. 109. “Malice,” in its common acceptation, means ill will towards some person. In its legal sense, it applies to a wrongful act done intentionally, without legal justification or excuse. Dunn v. Hall, 1 Ind. 344. A man may do an act willfully, and yet be free of malice. But he cannot do an act maliciously without at the same time doing it willfully. The malicious doing of an act includes the willful doing of it. Malice includes intent and will. In the law of libel and slander. An son defamed. Actual malice. Express malice, or malice in fact. Gee v. Culver, 13 Or. 598, 11 Pac. 302. Constructive malice. Implied malice; malice inferred from acts; malice imputed by law; malice which is not shown by direct proof of an intention to do injury, (express malice,) but which is inferentially established by the necessarily injurious results of the acts shown to have been committed. State v. Har rigan, 9 Houst. (Del.) 369, 31 Atl. 1052; Hogan v. State, 36 Wis. 238; Caldwell v. Raymond, 2 Abb. Prac. (N. Y.) 196,Express malice. Actual malice; malice in fact; a deliberate intention to commit an injury, evidenced by external circumstances. General malice. General malice is wickedness, a disposition to do wrong, a “black and diabolical heart, regardless of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.” Neal v. Nelson. 117 N. C. 393, 23 S. E. 428. 53 Am. St. Rep. 590; Brooks v. Jones, 33 N. C. 260. Implied malice. Malice inferred by legal reasoning and necessary deduction from the res gestae or the conduct of the party. Malice inferred from any deliberate cruel act committed by one person against another, however sudden. Whart. Horn. 38. What is called “general malice” is often thus inferred. Legal malice. An expression used as the equivalent of “constructive malice,” or “malice in law.” Humphries v. Parker, 52 Me. 502.Malice aforethought. In the definition of “murder,” malice aforethought exists where the person doing the act which causes death has an intention to cause death or grievous bodily harm to any person, (whether the person is actually killed or not,) or to commit any felony whatever, or has the knowledge that the act will probably cause the death of or grievous bodily harm to some person, although he does not desire it. or even wishes that it may not be caused. Steph. Crim. Dig. 144; 1 Russ. Crimes, 641. The words “malice aforethought” long ago acquired in law a settled meaning, somewhat different from the popular one. In their legal sense they do not import an actual intention to kill the deceased. The idea is not spite or malevolence to the deceased in particular, but evil design in general, the dictate of a wicked, depraved, and malignant heart; not premeditated personal hatred or revenge towards the person killed, but that kind of unlawful purpose which, if persevered in, must produce mischief. Malice in law. Implied, inferred, or legal malice. See Smith v. Rodecap, 5 Ind. App. 78, 31 N. E. 479; Bacon v. Railroad Co., 66 Mich. 166, 33 N. W. 181.Malice prepense. Malice aforethought ; deliberate, predetermined malice. 2 Rolle, 461. Particular malice. Malice di-, rected against a particular individual; ill will; a grudge; a desire to be revenged on a particular person. Brooks v. Jones, 33 N. C. 261; State v. Long, 117 N. C. 791, 23 S. E. 431. Preconceived malice. Malice prepense or aforethought. See State v. Reidell, 9 Houst. (Del.) 470, 14 Atl. 550. Premeditated malice. An intention to kill unlawfully, deliberately formed in the mind as the result of a determination meditated upon and fixed before the act. State v. Gin Pon, 16 Wash. 425, 47 Pac. 961; Milton v. State, 6 Neb. 143; State v. Rutten, 13 Wash. 211, 43 Pac. 30. Special malice. Particular or personal malice; that is, hatred, ill will, or a vindictive disposition against a particular individual. Universal malice. By this term is not meant a malicious purpose to take the life of all persons, but it is that depravity of the human heart which determines to take life upon slight or insufficient provocation, without knowing or caring who may be the victim. Mitchell v. State, 60 Ala. 30.