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A lynching is a form of Killing conducted under a thin guise of legitimacy by a vigilante group. It may be a purge of an individual from the group who is perceived to have gone astray, or it may be the summary execution of an individual outside the group that the group has determined has violated some law or code, either of the group, or the larger society. A lynching is distinguished from a legal execution in that the laws of a government are not followed in carrying out the killing. A lynching is distinguished from a murder in that there is the pretense of some process carried out by a group in the name of their own group or a higher power.
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