1. Conduct that is contrary to justice, honesty, or morality. • In the area of legal ethics, offenses involving moral turpitude — such as fraud or breach of trust — traditionally make a person unfit to practice law.
— Also termed moral depravity.
2. Military law. Any conduct for which the applicable punishment is a dishonorable discharge or confinement not less than one year.
“Moral turpitude means, in general, shameful wickedness — so extreme a departure from ordinary standards of honest, good morals, justice, or ethics as to be shocking to the moral sense of the community. It has also been defined as an act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which one person owes to another, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between people.” 50 Am. Jur. 2d Libel and Slander § 165, at 454 (1995).
