As standards editor Susan Wessling explains, both of those words have a specific legal definition, which means that the Times doesn’t use them outside of those definitions. We do not use it unless a formal charge has been made or a court has found that a killing was, indeed, a murder. I’m less careful with “execute,” and I regard “execution” as a valid description of how Pretti was killed. Use caution in the phrasing charged with murdering; not everyone charged with murder is accused of the act of shooting, stabbing, etc. To go back to my earlier example, “Chauvin was charged with murder” would be both generically and legally accurate.