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.
A Maui judge is ordering the release of a woman accused in the death of her twin sister after finding there's no probable cause for a murder charge. Court records show Judge Blaine Kobayashi ordered the release of Alexandria Duval during her preliminary hearing Wednesday.