Corpus Delicti, a criminal law term used in Scotland to signify the body or substance of the crime charged. To make out the corpus delicti is to prove that the crime charged has been committed; as, when a person is charged with murder, it must be proved that the deceased came by his death in consequence of the injury libelled, and not, for example, by natural causes.
Corpus Delicti
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 495
Source scan(s): p. 0506