FELO DE SE
FELO DE SE, criminal law. A felon of himself; a self-murderer.
2. To be guilty of this offence, the deceased must have had the will and intention of committing it, or else be committed no crime. As he is beyond the reach of human laws, he cannot be punished; the English law, indeed, attempts to inflict a punishment by a barbarous burial of his body, and by forfeiting to the king the property which he owned, and which would belong to his relations. Hawk. P. C. c. 9; 4 Bl. Com. 189. The charter of privileges granted by William Penn to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, contains the following clause: "If any person, through temptation or melancholy, shall destroy himself, his estate, real and personal, shall, notwithstanding, (descend to his wife and children, or relations, as if he had died a natural death."