DC’s Gift

In Perry Mason, Season 1 Episode 32, The Case of the Substitute Face, Mason proclaims, “Your Honor, I would like to serve notice on the prosecution that unless the body of Carl Houser is produced, there is no corpus delicti, and consequently, no case.” To which Hamilton Burger retorts, “If it please(es) the Court, I’m astonished that Mr. Mason doesn’t know that corpus delicti refers not to the body of the victim but the body of the crime.”

This can be a little confusing, especially when it comes to one of the “gifts” DC likes to present to us after hunting in the yard. While a dead body is often evidence a crime has been committed, the term “corpus” doesn’t necessarily refer to a corpse. “Corpus delicti” translates literally to the “body of offense” or “body of the crime” and, therefore, to all the concrete evidence, facts, and circumstances that pertain to a breach of law.

“Corpus delicti” embodies the principle that a court should not convict a defendant of a crime unless or until the prosecution has first established that a crime has been committed.