TITLE 18

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

CHAPTER 40

HOMICIDE

18-4001.  Murder defined. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being including, but not limited to, a human embryo or fetus, with malice aforethought or the intentional application of torture to a human being, which results in the death of a human being. Torture is the intentional infliction of extreme and prolonged pain with the intent to cause suffering. It shall also be torture to inflict on a human being extreme and prolonged acts of brutality irrespective of proof of intent to cause suffering. The death of a human being caused by such torture is murder irrespective of proof of specific intent to kill; torture causing death shall be deemed the equivalent of intent to kill.

History:

[18-4001, added 1972, ch. 336, sec. 1, p. 928; am. 1977, ch. 154, sec. 1, p. 390; am. 2002, ch. 330, sec. 1, p. 935.]