Murder most foul, as in the best it is.
--Shakespeare

The term homicide encompasses every type of unlawful killing and is gen-
erally divided into two specific categories of criminal conduct: murder and
manslaughter. These categories of criminal conduct will be explored in this
chapter.

At common law, murder was considered one of the most heinous of-
fenses and, as such, was punishable by death. Murder is broadly defined as
an "unlawful killing with malice aforethought." Historically, this meant that
the unlawful killing was performed with an evil, wicked motive or intent or
performed as a deliberate, cruel act without provocation. However, as the
law gradually evolved, the term malice aforethought shifted away from its
common law meaning and came to embrace four mental states that would
transform an unlawful killing into murder. The four mental states are intent
to kill, intent to do serious bodily harm, extreme reckless disregard and fel-
ony murder. Thus, an unlawful killing is performed with "malice" afore-
thought" (often referred to as simply "malice" in most statutes) if the
defendant causes a death while acting with one of these four mental states.

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