Other early frontrunners on the longlist for the general prize include 1995 winner John Emsley, who is back on the longlist with The Elements of Murder - A History of Poison, a gripping exploration of the history and science of poisoning, filled with gruesome, page-turning anecdotes.
"The issue of motive isn't part of the elements of murder.
Thomas P. Meidt, an assistant prosecutor on the case, said, "We thought we had the element of murder, but I think it's understandable why the jury would return this verdict".
The mens rea (mental element) of murder was long held to be "malice aforethought", which took on a meaning only of the required mental state for murder, since malice aforethought required neither malice (compassionate killing is still murder) nor aforethought (no premeditation is required).
"This Court, in conscience, cannot say that the State has proven every element of murder beyond a reasonable doubt, or that the State has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defense," Wilson wrote in his ruling.St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson wrote in his ruling.
In a blow to prosecutors, a police investigator said he failed to mention a witness who contradicts elements of the murder case against Scott Peterson.
Her plots have elements of the murder mystery or the psychological thriller, with mercurial shifts of narrative viewpoint from one character to another and from a character's interior monologue to godlike omniscience.
This fictional chronicle of the sentimental education of a priest mixes elements of melodrama, murder mystery and theological treatise, all of them swirling around an earnest young curate whose indiscretions bring scandal to the church and a killer to his confessional box.
At first his story pales next to Roseanne's, with all its elements of passion, murder and betrayal, and there are times in the book when it seems doubtful that these two apparently distinct narratives can ever resolve themselves into a whole novel.
Elements of the murder mystery and noir genres abound, but it's the incisive way writer-director Taylor Sheridan examines justice, otherness, and male fragility that puts this sleeper-hit starring Jeremy Renner squarely in Western territory (both literally and figuratively).
Unlike robbery, larceny by trick is not an element of felony murder.
