CRIMINAL INTENT. In order that an act shall amount to a crime, it must be committed with a criminal intent. It is not a crime to take the life of a human being if this is done pursuant to a legal command, as in the case of a sheriff inflicting capital punishment upon a duly con victed and sentenced criminal; nor if it is the result of accident. In neither case does the per son causing the other's death intend to commit a criminal act. But criminal intent is not neces sarily synonymous with actual intent to become a criminal. A general criminal intent exists alien the actor has an intellectual apprehension of the nature of the act which the law pro nounces criminal, and voluntarily assents to its commission. In most ei Imes, no other intent is required. At times, however, the law requires a. specific intent, as in the case of the transfer of one's property with intent to defraud his creditors, or sending poison to another with intent to injure him. Here, something more than knowingly and voluntarily disposing of the property, or sending the poison, is necessary to the commission of the crime, viz. the disposi
tion or the sending with the specific intent to defraud or to injure. Insanity (q.v.) relieves its victim from criminal liability when it ren ders him incapable of forming a criminal inten tion. Voluntary drunkenness, even when causing temporary insanity, does not so relieve its vic tim, although it. may be taken into account in crimes requiring a specific intent on the part of the actor, in determining whether he did the particular act with the specific intent. Infancy also relieves from criminal liability when the in fant is incapable of forming a criminal intent. (See AGE.) Analogous to insanity and infancy, as an excuse for an act otherwise criminal, is coercion or duress (q.v.) when of such a char acter as to destroy the voluntary nature of the act. See ACCESSORY; PRINCIPAL: Prxisu INIENT; also CRIMINAL LAW; CRIMINOLOGY, and the authorities there referred to.