Comment by kube-system

When people say "establishing intent" in terms of criminal cases, this is usually a shorthand for something more specifically defined in the law, like "intent to do harm" or something.

To use the murder example again: many people who commit manslaughter have all kinds of various intentions. The one murder is concerned with is whether or not they specifically had the intent to kill the person. "Establishing intent" in this scenario is specifically regarding that one intent. Not any intent.