Intent is a mental attitude with which an individual acts, and therefore it cannot ordinarily be directly proved but must be inferred from surrounding facts and circumstances. Intent refers only to the state of mind with which the act is done or omitted. It differs from motive, which is what prompts a person to act or to fail to act.
Derrick Todd Lee has been sentenced to death for the first degree murder of LSU grad student Charlotte Murray Pace. It took the jury that convicted Lee for Pace's murder 93 minutes to unanimously decide Lee's fate. Lee is now at Angola State Penitentiary.
The key witness in the case was Jay Wilds, a former classmate of Lee and Syed at Baltimoreâs Woodlawn High School. During the trial, Jay testified that he helped Syed dispose of Leeâs body. For his role in the crime, he was given two years probation for being an accessory to murder after the fact. Jay declined to be interviewed by âSerialâ host and producer, Sarah Koenig. He spoke publicly about the case for first time in an exclusive interview with The Intercept. The first part was published yesterday. Today weâre publishing the second part of this interview.