Lying in wait

{{Short description|Concept in criminal law}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} In criminal law, '''lying in wait''' refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill or inflict serious bodily harm to that person.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.mindserpent.com/American_History/reference/1999_Black_7/sec_l.pdf|title=Lying in wait|website=Black's Law Dictionary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140405185152/http://www.mindserpent.com/American_History/reference/1999_Black_7/sec_l.pdf|archive-date=April 5, 2014|url-status=dead|access-date=January 29, 2016}}</ref> Because lying in wait involves premeditation, some jurisdictions have established that lying in wait is considered an aggravating circumstance that allows for the imposition of harsher criminal penalties.<ref name=":0" /><ref>See also H. Mitchell Caldwell, [http://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1477&context=umlr ''The Prostitution of Lying in Wait''], 57 U. Miami L. Rev. 311, 313 (2003) (discussing application of special circumstances when criminal defendants lie in wait).</ref>

==History== Scholars have traced the origins of this doctrine as far back as 1389, when the English Parliament passed a law that denied the right of pardon to individuals who killed while lying in wait.<ref>H. Mitchell Caldwell, [http://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1477&context=umlr ''The Prostitution of Lying in Wait''], 57 U. Miami L. Rev. 311, 313 (2003) (citing 13 Rich. 2, c.l (1389)).</ref><ref>Pardon of Offences Act 1389, 13 Rich. II St. 2 c. 1</ref>

==In the United States== In 1794, Pennsylvania passed a law that defined first degree murder as "[a]ll murder which shall be perpetrated ... by lying in wait".<ref>''Schad v. Arizona'', 501 U.S. 624, 641-42 n.8 (1991) (internal citations and quotations omitted) (discussing origins of doctrine).</ref>

In the United States of America, some states modeled their penal codes after the Pennsylvania law, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century, only four states identified "lying in wait" as a "death qualifying act".<ref>H. Mitchell Caldwell, [http://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1477&context=umlr ''The Prostitution of Lying in Wait''], 57 U. Miami L. Rev. 311, 313 (2003) (identifying California, Colorado, Indiana, and Montana).</ref>

==See also== * Murder * Capital punishment * Ambush

==References== {{bots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} {{reflist|30em}}

Category:Criminal law