criminal law and procedure

Parole is the conditional release of prisoners before the full completion of their sentence.

A parolee is a prisoner who is released on parole.

[Last reviewed in November of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]

• criminal law and procedure

A partial defense is a type of defense that mitigates the defendant’s culpability. An example is the provocation defense in criminal law.

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1531, that bans partial-birth abortion, also referred to as intact dilation and extraction, to terminate a pregnancy. In passing the statute, Congress found that “[a] moral, medical, and ethical consensus exists that the practice of performing a partial-birth abortion. . .

A peculator (also referred to as an embezzler) refers to a person who steals money that was under their supervision, by utilizing the benefit or convenience created by their position. The money is not limited to cash, and can include vouchers, or any monetary benefit entrusted by the peculator who doesn’t legally own it.

A pen register is a device or process that traces outgoing signals from a specific phone or computer to their destination; it is often used by law enforcement as the advanced counterpart of an outgoing call log. A pen register produces a list of the phone numbers or IP addresses contacted, but does not include substantive information transmitted by the signals. 

The term penitentiary is derived from the Latin term paenitentia, meaning repentance.

• lawsuits-court
• criminal law

People often appears as the title given in a case name to stand for the government party, with the idea that the government is representing the public in the case. For example, the title in the case People v. Thomas is representing the people of New York State. Often, government names in cases appear either as the state name, simply “State,” or “United States” when the federal government is a party. 

People v. William Freeman (1847) was the first case in the United States where a defendant used an insanity defense. The case was heard and decided by the New York Supreme Court. 

A perpetrator is a person who committed a crime.