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Difference between assassination and murder?

Why do they say that abraham lincoln was assassinated but any person walking down the street was murdered?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Assassinate is defined as: to kill suddenly or secretively, esp. a politically prominent person; murder premeditatedly and treacherously.

Murder: the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).

Whenever anyone attempts to kill a high ranking official or even a pope, it's called an "attempted assassination"