Chapter 10: Excuse Defenses Flashcards
- Provocation of EED, “heat of passion”
- Duress
- Insanity
- Infancy
- Intoxication
- Syndromes
- Cultural defenses
Examples of Excuse Defenses
Defense of Duress: Case example
US v. Contento-Pancho
___ is violated if D is incompetent (cannot stand or be tried at trial)
Due Process
Does D have a mental disability that (a) prohibits her/hom from understanding the nature of proceedings OR (b) assisting with defense?
Test for competency
Insanity Defense: Procedural Issues
- D must provide notice and submit to testing
- In many jurisdictions, D has burden of proof
- VERY difficult to prove
- Jurisdictions differ on procedures and verdicts - most common are NGI (not guilty by reason of insanity) and GBI (guilty by reason of insanity)
- If defense is successful, it usually results in commitment to mental institutions
M’Naghten, irresistible impulse, product, MPC
Legal tests for insanity
Temporary insanity is ___ a separate defense
NOT
Two issues for jurisdictions to decide over Infancy
- At what age does criminal responsibility begin?
- At what age are young people tried as adults rather than as juveniles?
Two types of Intoxication Defense
- Involuntary intoxication (where intoxicating substances are unknowingly ingested by D) is usually permitted as a defense, it it rendered D insane or unable to form MR
- Voluntary intoxication (where substances are knowingly ingested by D) is a much weaker defense
___ defenses must be used with an existing defense, such as lack of MR or self-defense
Syndrome
State v Norman: relevant syndrome evidence
Battered woman syndrome
Nicholas Horner case: relevant syndrome evidence
PTSD
Geraldine Richter case: relevant syndrome evidence
PMS
___ must be used with an existing defense, such as lack of MR or self-defense
Cultural defenses
Gathering or delivering classified information in a way that could harm the US or benefit a foreign nation
Espionage
Using ___ to benefit the country (usually by exposing unlawful government activity, whistle blowers)
Espionage (The Citizens’s Commission, Edward Snowden)
“Adherence” to an enemy and providing enemy with “aid and comfort”
Treason
Antigovernment advocacy
Sedition
___ laws are unconstitutional (of 1st amendment) unless limited to “advocacy that is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and that is likely to incite or produce such action”
Sedition
Ideologically motivated violence
Terrorism
Laws punish acts of this crime done with intent to intimidate or coerce civilians, influence government policy, affect government conduct, or retaliate against government actions
Terrorism
Other laws relating to ___
- Prohibiting material support for terrorists
- Prohibiting use of WMD’s
Terrorism
Lying under oath
Perjury
Tampering with jury, or evidence, or witnesses; filing false police report
Obstruction of justice
“Whoever, being a public official or person selected to be a public official corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value in return for being influenced is guilty of ___”
Bribery
Violation of civil rights is an example of…
Crime committed by public officials
