In criminal law, lying in wait refers to the act of hiding and waiting for an individual with the intent to kill or inflict serious bodily harm to that person. [1] Because lying in wait involves premeditation, some jurisdictions have established that lying in wait is considered an aggravating circumstance that allows for the imposition of harsher criminal penalties. [1] [2]
Scholars have traced the origins of this doctrine as far back as 1389, when the English Parliament passed a law that denied the right of pardon to individuals who killed while lying in wait. [3] [4]
In 1794, Pennsylvania passed a law that defined first degree murder as "[a]ll murder which shall be perpetrated ... by lying in wait". [5]
In the United States of America, some states modeled their penal codes after the Pennsylvania law, but by the beginning of the twenty-first century, only four states identified "lying in wait" as a "death qualifying act". [6]