Assasinated or Murdered? Who decides?

Question

When a person is murdered, how important do you have to be to be classified as Assasinated & who makes this decision

After thinking about this question for a while I conclude that it has to do with the manner in which the murder was conducted. i.e: an assasin was hired to commit the murder. Rather than doing it themselves maybe. That means that anybody can be assasinated as long as it was commited by an assasin.

Answer 1

I think it is classed as an assassination if it is for political reasons and is carried-out on someone in power.

Answer 2

Is it not just politicians and royalty or heads of state that gets assasinated . The rest of us are just murdered . Whats the differance between an assasin and a murderer ? An assasin gets paid presumably so if a hit man came after me I suppose I could be assasinated , although the wife would probably want to do that part herself .

Answer 3

Good question, I think people like you and me if we were assasiinated it would go down as a ganglang slaying or something of that ilk. Although if the assasin was a well renowned killer then maybe the police although possibly being baffled as to why a high profile assasin would want to kill a member of the general public, it would be labeled an assasination.

Answer 4

I think if the person killed is a very important person, then the murder is called as assassignation and if he is not, then he is killed or murdered. We hear about so many murders taking place. They are a part of the criminal record worthy of being sidelined in a corner of the page. If it was that of a person, very well known in the community, it becomes assasination .

Answer 5

but an assasin is also a murderer..so its not a cut and dry answer you know.
if you are famous and maybe a political figure, peole will say he was assinated and when you are not that popular, the press will say you were murdered. think about it...a sharpshooter lies on a roof and guns down two children walking aout of a pizza hut....headline news will be "2 kids murdered in cold blood"
take the ame sharpshooter and get him to kil or shoot jf kennedy and it will be called an assination....hope i score 10 points for this.

Answer 6

Assasinated:

1. To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons.
2. To destroy or injure treacherously: assassinate a rival's character.

Murdered:

1. To kill (another human) unlawfully.
2. To kill brutally or inhumanly.
3. To put an end to; destroy: murdered their chances.
4. To spoil by ineptness; mutilate: a speech that murdered the English language.
5. Slang To defeat decisively; trounce.


Therefore, if you kill someone for political reasons, or because they are your arch nemisis, then it is an assasination. Otherwise it is just muder.

Answer 7

Yeah, assasins work for cash and are usually a soldier of some description.

Murderers are either mad or bad - and get no reward, unles thats why they murdered (ie family fortune)

Answer 8

Assassination is the MURDER of a prominent figure be they political, royal, religious leader of a sect (or tribe) or popular.

Who decides? You do! Was John Lennon assassinated? Some would agree and others would disagree.

Answer 9

Chambers defines assassinate as "to murder, especially for political or religious reasons". My pocket Collins says "for money or political reasons".

So I think it's the motive which is the key.

Answer 10

You are murdered if you are poor and unimportant and assassinated if you are rich or a president.