Aggravating Circumstances

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Aggravating Circumstances

in criminal law, circumstances that make a particular criminal act and the criminal himself more dangerous socially and that entail more severe punishment.

In Soviet law an exhaustive list of aggravating circumstances is given in the criminal codes of the Union republics. A distinction is made between (1) aggravating circumstances that are constituent elements of a particular crime, for example, repeated theft (in such instances the increased punishment is prescribed by law for the particular type of crime), and (2) circumstances that are not constituent elements of the specific crime but apply to all types of crime. For example, Article 39 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR includes among such aggravating circumstances the previous commission of a crime, or the commission of a crime by an organized group, from mercenary motives, with unusual cruelty, or against minors or persons advanced in age. Aggravating circumstances not prescribed by law may not be considered by the court in assigning the punishment.

The determination of aggravating circumstances is also important for identifying the factors and conditions that contributed to the commission of the crime. These findings are used to develop measures to prevent crime.

References in periodicals archive ?

But the SC said that to characterize rape as heinous and to justify the imposition of death penalty, the concurrence of the minority of the victim and her relationship to the offender, as a single special aggravating circumstance, must be alleged.

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The panel is comfortably satisfied there are aggravating circumstances in the case at hand as it was obvious to the panel the athlete used rEPO as part of a scheme or plan.

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You must follow the law that will now be given to you and provide an advisory sentence based upon your determination as to whether sufficient aggravating circumstances exist to justify the imposition of the death penalty or whether sufficient mitigating circumstances exist that outweigh any aggravating circumstances found to exist.

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I plead not guilty to all five counts, my lady," Dewani told the judge on the first day of his trial, after the state's prosecutor read out the charges including murder, kidnapping and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

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The millionaire businessman was extradited from the UK to face trial charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, kidnapping, and defeating the ends of justice.

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Dewani, who has not yet entered pleas, faces charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, kidnapping, and defeating the ends of justice.

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While pronouncing the verdict, Sessions judge Vrushali Joshi said: "Considering the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, I am of the opinion that the case does not fall under the rarest of the rare category" and ordered that he be imprisoned for the rest of his life.

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We pointed out to the court that in all, there are ten aggravating circumstances for awarding death penalty to these accused.

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murder under aggravating circumstances, which was committed deliberately with extreme atrocity.

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