Malice murder is a criminal offence in the US state of Georgia, committed when a homicide is done with express or implied malice.
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Definition
Express malice is "that deliberate intention unlawfully to take the life of another human being which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof." Malice is implied when "no considerable provocation appears and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart."
Examples
Justin Ross Harris of Marietta, Georgia was convicted in November 2016 of malice murder in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. Prosecutors argued that Mr. Harris was unhappily married and wanted an escape from family life, and intentionally killed his son by leaving him for about seven hours in the back seat of his vehicle outside the suburban Atlanta office where Mr. Harris worked. Temperatures in the Atlanta area that day reached at least into the high 80s. Investigators found evidence that Mr. Harris was engaging in online flirtations and in-person affairs with numerous women other than his wife, including a prostitute and an underage teenager. Mr. Harris was found guilty of all eight counts against him. In addition to malice murder and felony murder charges, Mr. Harris was also found guilty of sending sexual text messages to a teenage girl and sending her nude photos.
Kelly Gissendaner was found guilty of malice murder in 1998 and executed in 2015, and members of the FEAR terrorist group were charged with it in 2012. One of the murderers of Richard T. Davis was convicted of malice murder in 2004, as was Melissa Leslie Burgeson, an associate of Timothy Carr. Stephen Anthony Mobley was guilty of both malice murder and felony murder.