Murder is probably the greatest ranked crime within the criminal justice system. A criminal solicitor is regularly faced with the burden of working with detectives to find killers and prove their guilt in murder cases. One way of unravelling a murder mystery is by establishing premeditation in the act. This means that the killer had preplanned their murder mission with a sound mind and malicious intent. The following key issues can help a criminal solicitor to identify motives that could have led to a planned murder.

Inheritance

Sometimes, people commit murder in order to get their hands on an inheritance, be it in the form of money, land or businesses. As a criminal solicitor, you should therefore think outside the box in murder cases, especially those of rich individuals. When gathering your facts, be sure to talk to people who stand to gain financially from an individual's death. Mostly, the children and spouses of the deceased are viewed as victims, but being a criminal solicitor, you cannot leave anything to chance. In several cases, the immediate relatives of the deceased have been proven to have committed the murder either personally or collaboratively for financial gain. Where wealth is involved, premeditation is always a possibility.

Love and jealousy

People also kill for love and out of jealousy. A jilted lover, a forcefully divorced partner or even rejection after expressing interest are all contributing factors to building motive for murder. A criminal solicitor should therefore probe a murder victim's romantic associations during their investigations and if any intensive bitterness associated with failed romances is detected in a suspect, this is enough to establish premeditation in a murder.

Threat factor

A criminal solicitor should find out if the murder victim could have been a threat to someone while alive, leading that person to plan the victim's murder. This is especially true when the victim was a witness in another criminal case or when they unravelled frauds such as corruption in public offices. The individuals who stood to lose their credibility and had such scams exposed could be behind the murder, hence qualifying the premeditation argument.

Remember that most killers are clever and careful not to leave evidence that traces a murder crime back to them. This makes murder trials difficult to close and necessitates criminal solicitors to look for other ways of proving guilt other than use of hard evidence--for example, establishing motive by suspects and hence suggesting a premeditated murder.

For more information, contact a professional such as David Allchin.

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