corpus delicti

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corpus de·lic·ti

(dĭ-lĭk′tī′)

1. Law The corroborating evidence that shows that a crime has been committed, other than a confession or an alleged accomplice's statement.

2. A corpse.

[New Latin corpus dēlictī : Latin corpus, body, collection of facts + Latin dēlictī, genitive of dēlictum, crime.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

corpus delicti

(dɪˈlɪktaɪ)

(Law) law the body of facts that constitute an offence

[New Latin, literally: the body of the crime]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cor•pus de•lic•ti

(ˈkɔr pəs dɪˈlɪk taɪ)

n., pl. cor•po•ra delicti (ˈkɔr pər ə)

1. the basic element of a crime, as, in murder, the fact that a death has occurred.

2. the evidence, as a body, that proves a crime has been committed.

[1825–35; < New Latin: literally, body of the offense]

corpus delicti

The body of a crime, or the essential facts that show that a crime has been committed.

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Noun

corpus delicti - the body of evidence that constitute the offence; the objective proof that a crime has been committed (sometimes mistakenly thought to refer to the body of a homicide victim)

evidence - (law) all the means by which any alleged matter of fact whose truth is investigated at judicial trial is established or disproved

law, jurisprudence - the collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"

Translations

corps du délit

corpus delicti

n (Jur) → Corpus Delicti nt; (= corpse) → Leiche f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

"But Lors ha' massy, how did you get near such mud as that?" said Sally, making a wry face, as she stooped down and examined the corpus delicti .

View in context

Arroyo and the other persons charged in the cases and there was no proof that the former President and Aguas amassed ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million which is the "corpus delicti" of plunder.

SC clears former PCSO board chair Valencia on malversation charges

According to the SC, the corpus delicti of the crime here is the shabu or the dangerous drugs.

Procedural lapses

Normally, to charge respondents with a crime, the Ombudsman or the Department of Justice (DOJ) must find probable cause based on evidence or the body of crime (corpus delicti) on how the plunder was committed.

Important reminder: Congress cannot investigate a crime

'Considering that Garin failed to show the existence of the corpus delicti of the crime of reckless imprudence resulting to homicide, the complaint against Ubial shall be dismissed for lack of probable cause,' it added.

DOJ dismisses Garin's complaint vs Ubial

Corpus delicti requires the prosecution to prove that the alleged offense was attributable to a criminal act, rather than accident or chance.

Precise cause of death was not needed for conviction

But while the appeals court found that the state satisfied the corpus delicti rule in Hines in other words, proved that a crime had been committed it determined that prosecutors in Eldred failed to prove an essential element of DWI: that the defendant's admitted impairment began before or during the time he was driving his vehicle.

Comprising footage of professional and amateur string quartets playing in venues ranging from large concert halls to wedding marquees, Evaporated Music 3: Classical Corpus Delicti, 2015, sits at a conceptual tangent to the first two entries in the trilogy, taking aim at the conservatory and the concert hall instead of popular culture and its music.

Philip Brophy: NEON PARC

After explicating the "dystopian paradigm" (153) through discussing Corpus Delicti (2009; The Method) by German author Juli Zeh instead of one of the usual suspects, Layh describes various mutations of the dystopian genre, first and foremost "utopia's secret return in the guise of the critical dystopia" (175).

Layh, Susanna. Finstere neue Welten: Gattungsparadigmatische Transformationen der literarischen Utopie und Dystopie [Dark New Worlds

The original title was Corpus Delicti: Ein Prozess (2009), and Zeh most convincingly develops her message of warning in the scenario of a criminal trial.