Corpus Delicti

Corpus Delicti is Latin for “body of the crime.” The elements of an offense are known as the corpus delecti. Corpus delecti means that an actual crime (the elements of an offense) must be proven before a person can be convicted of committing a crime. For example, in a theft case, if the prosecution can not show that anything has been stolen from the victim, the defendant can not be convicted of theft.