But Mr. Miller argued that Mr. List, a failure in business, had acted without malice, because he wanted to shield his family from the shame of going on welfare, and that he had killed them to insure their salvation.
The strong uncontradicted evidence of malice in the record, coupled with respondent's utter failure to come forward with a colorable claim that he acted without malice, disposes of his contention that he suffered such actual prejudice that reversal of his conviction 19 years later could be justified.
Thus, despite the fact that malice was an element of the offense of murder, the law of Maine provided that, if the defendant contended that he acted without malice, but rather "in the heat of passion on sudden provocation," he, not the prosecution, was required to bear the burden of persuasion by a "fair preponderance of the evidence". Ibid.
Fletcher opined that the allegations in the report were inconsistent with his settlement with Stumbo, which acknowledged that Fletcher's administration acted "without malice".
Although Judge William B. Lehnhardt, in a ruling filed last week but not publicized until Tuesday, found that the union had acted without malice or fraud and therefore was not subject to punitive damages, he ruled that the union was liable for crop losses in 13 Imperial Valley fields.
Macmillan believed he had acted honourably and without malice toward his chancellor.
"It's just an act of malice".
It's not a logical impossibility for anyone, even for a person who is half black and half white, to make a racist statement, but Beck's act of malice was, to say the least, stupid — and, it could be argued, not without its own whiff of racism.
● Consider abolishing judicial immunity for judges who act with malice.
This is not an act of mercy; this is an act of malice," Kennedy said Wednesday.
