Also known as: malefactors · wrongdoer · offender
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A person who commits a wrongful or criminal act. The term identifies the actor responsible for conduct that violates legal duties or inflicts harm on others.
Carrie threatened to abandon Barry, her ill employer, unless he signed a new will leaving his estate to her. Barry executed the document under that pressure. Carrie functioned as the malefactor whose coercion invalidated the transfer.
Luca filed a criminal complaint against Maya alleging theft without probable cause and solely to harass her. Maya was acquitted after the charges were dismissed. Luca acted as the malefactor whose conduct completed malicious prosecution.
Timothy, age seventeen, set fire to a construction site and killed a foreman. Prosecutors sought the death penalty despite his age. Timothy was the malefactor whose juvenile status barred capital punishment.
Carrie told Barry she would stop managing his care unless he changed his will in her favor. Barry signed under the threat. Carrie served as the malefactor whose duress procured the donative transfer.
Jared told Kenneth that Elizabeth faced fraud charges that would bar her inheritance. The report was false and unverified. Jared operated as the malefactor whose misrepresentation procured the trust amendment by fraud.
Reynolds continued plural marriages after Congress criminalized the practice in the territories. Federal prosecutors charged him under the statute. Reynolds stood as the malefactor whose conduct tested the limits of religious exemption claims.
George Reynolds, a longtime member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was indicted in the District Court of the third judicial district of the Territory of Utah for bigamy after entering a second marriage to Amelia Jane Schofield while his first wife remained alive. Reynolds had obtained permission from recognized church authorities to contract the polygamous marriage. He and other male church members believed the practice was a religious duty enjoined by divine revelation to Joseph Smith. Refusal would bring damnation when circumstances permitted. The grand jury that returned the indictment consisted of fifteen persons under a territorial statute. This differed from the sixteen to twenty-three persons required by federal statute for United States circuit and district courts. During voir dire, the trial court overruled Reynolds's challenges for cause to prospective jurors including Charles Read who stated they had formed opinions about the case. The court sustained government challenges to other prospective jurors who were or had been living in polygamy. At trial the prosecution offered the transcript of testimony given by Amelia Jane Schofield at an earlier prosecution of Reynolds for the same offense under a different indictment. The government showed that subpoenas were served at Reynolds's house. An officer was told the witness was not at home. Reynolds declined to disclose her location. A later subpoena with the correct name also failed to locate her. Reynolds had been present and able to cross-examine at the prior trial but offered no explanation for her absence. Reynolds requested a jury instruction that he must be acquitted if the jury found he acted in the sincere belief that the second marriage fulfilled a religious duty. The court refused and instead instructed that religious belief could not excuse a knowing violation of the criminal law. The court further instructed the jury to consider the consequences of polygamy for innocent women and children. Reynolds was convicted and the case reached the Supreme Court of the United States on writ of error.
View caseA malefactor is a person who commits a wrongful or criminal act. The term appears in historical and modern sources to identify the individual responsible for the conduct that gives rise to liability.
Courts examine whether a malefactor used undue influence, duress, or fraud to procure a donative transfer. When such conduct is shown, the transfer is invalid to the extent it resulted from the malefactor's actions.
Yes. The term labels the person whose conduct satisfies the elements of offenses such as theft by extortion or malicious prosecution. Liability attaches once the malefactor's purpose and actions are established.
Supporting sources
…intended is guilty as an accomplice. "Art. 1193. Attempt at abortion "If the means used shall fail to produce an abortion, the offender is nevertheless guilty of an attempt to produce abortion, provided it be shown that such means were calculated to produce that result, and shall be fined not less than one hundred nor more…