whetstonefires:

missephy:

flo-nelja:

vongoladodicesimo:

sadakotetsuwan:

kaytayzombay:

showerthoughtsofficial:

How important do you have to be to have been “assassinated” instead of “murdered”?

That is…a good question

If the motivation is political, then it’s assassination. Otherwise it’s murder. You cannot be assassinated by accident.

If a jilted ex murders the Prince of Placeland, it’s just a murder.

If a jilted ex is also a member of a rival political faction, it may be assassination.

If a jilted ex is driving home in tears and accidentally runs over the Prince of Placeland in the middle of the night in a neighborhood where the streetlights are out because of the prince’s questionable infrastructure policy, it’s manslaughter.

Thanks murder side of tumblr

I had always thought that if you paid someone to do it, it was assassination, no matter the person’s importance.

It is.

Homicide = killing someone, can even be an accident or not premeditated.

Murder = planned homicide.

Assassination = paid homicide

I don’t have the legalese to go with it though, so if someone does, feel free to share.

Except a politically motivated volunteer homicide is also assassination. There’s basically two kinds. But confusingly they often overlap.

Like when corporations hire people to murder rainforest conservation activists it’s both kinds of assassination, but unless you can prove it it’s going to get filed as a random murder.