Murder for Hire

Although definitions vary in terms of emphasizing the degree of sophistication involved, murder for hire is a unique type of multiple-offender homicide in which one person solicits another to kill a third person for monetary or other gain. Murder for hire can be broadly distinguished on the basis of sophistication and/or professionalism and the categorization of interpersonal attachments of solicitors and hit men as “professional/independent” and “personalized.” Legally, if they are not completed, murder-for-hire schemes are handled as inchoate, or unfinished, crimes of solicitation, conspiracy, and attempt. If completed, solicitors and hired killers can be charged with murder.

At present, there is no central repository of data about murder-for-hire offending, and no reliable statistical documentation exists of the incidence and prevalence of this type of lethal ...