corpus delicti

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And there’s this one, a pioneering one in California criminal law: a crime even without a corpse, the body of evidence — the corpus delicti.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2026

So, every time you have some sort of a crime that’s committed, you have to have the corpus delicti, which is a Latin term for the body of the crime.

From Slate • Jul. 24, 2019

Furthermore, there seemed to be no corpus delicti: in whodunits, corpus delicti means a corpse.

From Time Magazine Archive

But in law, corpus delicti means not the body of a victim but the "body of the offense," i.e., evidence that the crime in question has been committed.

From Time Magazine Archive

There must be the evil intent; there must be the wicked conspiracy not only, but there must be one at least overt act done in pursuance of it before the corpus delicti can be established.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 10 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Legal by Ingersoll, Robert Green