---
kind: "section"
citation: "18 U.S.C. § 1118"
title: "18"
title_heading: "Crimes and Criminal Procedure"
number: "1118"
heading: "Murder by a Federal prisoner"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/18/1118"
units:
  - "Part I — Crimes"
  - "Chapter 51 — Homicide"
---

# §1118. Murder by a Federal prisoner

- (a) **Offense.—** A [person](/usc/18/229F.md?p=5) who, while confined in a Federal correctional institution under a sentence for a term of life imprisonment, commits the murder of another shall be punished by death or by life imprisonment.
- (b) **Definitions.—** In this section—

  “Federal correctional institution” means any Federal [prison](/usc/18/2246.md?p=1), Federal correctional facility, Federal community program center, or Federal halfway house.

  “murder” means a first degree or second degree murder (as defined in [section 1111](/usc/18/1111.md)).

  “term of life imprisonment” means a sentence for the term of natural life, a sentence commuted to natural life, an indeterminate term of a minimum of at least fifteen years and a maximum of life, or an unexecuted sentence of death.


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, § 60005(a), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1970.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Another section 1118 was renumbered section 1122 of this title.