[delecti]

I think it depends. The two main definitions I'm seeing for "assassination" are either: any intentional murder (so basically any murder is an assassination), or specifically any politically motivated murder (so a jilted lover killing the president wouldn't be an assassination, but killing your local HOA president could be).

[philwelch]

People seem to consistently refer to John Hinckley’s shooting of President Reagan as an “assassination attempt” despite the fact that Hinckley’s motive was a delusional belief that this would impress Jodie Foster. And we still don’t know the exact motive of the JFK assassination, though everyone has their theories.