Chapter 7

Question 1

What is a party?

Answer 1

Those who participate in a crime.

Question 2

What is an inchoate crime?

Answer 2

A crime that is uncompleted.

Question 3

In common law, what were the four parties to a crime?

Answer 3

1. Principals in the first degree.
2. Principals in the second degree.
3. Accessories before the fact.
4. Accessories after the fact.

Question 4

What is a principal?

Answer 4

A person directly involved with committing a crime, as opposed to an accessory.

Question 5

What is a principal in the first degree?

Answer 5

The participant who actually committed the proscribed act.

Question 6

What is a principal in the 2nd degree?

Answer 6

It is a party that aids , counsels, assists, or encourages the principal in the first degree during commission of the crime.

Question 7

Must a party be present during a crime in order to be a principal in the 2nd degree? Is constructive presence sufficient?

Answer 7

Yes. Yes.

Question 8

Are first-degree and second-degree principals punished equally?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

What is an accomplice?

Answer 9

Principals in the second degree.

Question 10

Are accessories before the fact principals in the 2nd degree?

Answer 10

Yes.

Question 11

What is an accessory?

Answer 11

Anyone who aids, counsels, encourages, or assists in the preparation of a crie, but is not physically present during the crime, is an accessory before the fact.

Question 12

What is the primary distinction between a principal in the 2nd degree and an accessory before the fact is what?

Answer 12

The lack of presence during the crime of an accessory before the fact.

Question 13

Is it true that statutes commonly group principals in the first and second degree together with accessories before the fact and punish all equally?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

Do negligent and reckless acts make a person a principal in the 2nd degree or an accessory?

Answer 14

No.

Question 15

Under the law, are accessories after the fact treated differently?

Answer 15

Yes. They are not punished as severely.

Question 16

What elements make a person an accessory after the fact?

Answer 16

1. Aid, comfort or shelter a criminal.
2. With the purpose of assisting the criminal in avoiding arrest or prosecution.
3. After the crime is committed.
4. and the accessory was not present during commission of the crime.

Question 17

What is the definition of an accessory?

Answer 17

A person who helps commit a crime without being present. An accessory before the fact is a person who, without being present, encourages, orders or helps another to commit a crime.

An accessory after the fact is a person who finds out that a crime has been committed and helps to conceal the crime or the criminal.

Question 18

What mental state is required to prove that a person is an accessory after the fact?

Answer 18

1. That the defendant was aware of the person’s criminal status (scienter).
2. The defendant intended to hinder attempts to arrest or prosecute the criminal.

Question 19

What is attempt?

Answer 19

An effort to commit a crime that goes beyond preparation and that proceeds far enough to make the person who did it guilty fo an ‘attempted crime.’ For example, if a person fires a shot at another in a failed effort at murder, the person is guilty of attempted murder.

Question 20

What are the 3 elements of an attempt?

Answer 20

1. The defendant must intend to commit a crime. (knowingly or purposefully)
2. The defendant must act in furtherance of that intent. (thoughts or mere preparation without anything further does not amount to the crime of the attempt.)
3. The crime is not completed.

Question 21

What are the 4 commonly used tests to determine if an act is close enough to completion to permit an attempt conviction?

Answer 21

1. Proximity.
2. res ipsa loquitur,
3. probable desistance,
4. Code’s “Substantial Steps.”

Question 22

What is the proximity test?

Answer 22

1. It examines what acts have been taken and what acts are left to be taken to complete the crime. There must be “a dangerous proximity to success.”

Question 23

What is the res ipsa loquitur test?

Answer 23

(Also called the unequivocality test) looks at crimes individually and finds an act, a certain point in time, which indicates that the defendant has “no other purpose than the commission of that specific crime.”

For example, most courts have held that once a defendant hires another to commit a crime, attempt has been committed.

Question 24

What is probable desistance?

Answer 24

It focuses on the likelihood that the defendant would have followed through with the crime had the opportunity existed.

Question 25

What is the substantial step?

Answer 25

One is guilty of attempt if substantial steps have been taken toward commission of a crime. The the conduct in question must "strongly corroborate." the actor's criminal purpose.

Question 26

What is the abandonment defense?

Answer 26

If a defendant has a change of heart and does not complete the crime, even after crossing the line, then abandonment my be a valid defense.

Question 27

Besides abandonment, what are the two other defenses that arise in the context of abandonment?

Answer 27

1. Legal Impossibility. | 2. Factual Impossibility.

Question 28

What is legal impossibility?

Answer 28

A person who is unable to commit a crime because of legal impossibility cannot be convicted of a crime he or she intends or attempts. The defendant believes his acts are criminal when they are not.

Question 29

What is factual impossibility?

Answer 29

Situations when people attempt to commit a crime, but it is impossible to do so.

Question 30

What is conspiracy?

Answer 30

A crime that may be committed when two or more persons agree to do something unlawful (or to do something lawful by unlawful means.) The agreement can be inferred from the person's actions.

Question 31

What are the elements of conspiracy?

Answer 31

1. An agreement. 2. Between two or more persons. 3. to commit an unlawful act or a lawful act in an unlawful manner. The agreement is the actus reus of the crime. The intent to commit the unlawful act is the mens rea.

Question 32

What is the concert of action rule?

Answer 32

The rule that, unless a statute specifies otherwise, it is not a conspiracy for two persons to agree to commit a crime if the definition of the crime itself requires the participation of two or more persons. Also called the Wharton Rule and concerted action rule.

Question 33

Is the Wharton Rule limited to two people?

Answer 33

Yes.

Question 34

What are the two aspects of mens rea in regards to conspiracy?

Answer 34

1. Conspirators must have an intent to enter into an agreement. 2. Conspirators must possess a specific intent to enter into an agreement.

Question 35

Does the language of conspiracy speak of doing unlawful acts, not necessarily criminal?

Answer 35

Yes. This is important because some acts, when taken by an individual, may lead to civil, but not criminal, liability.

Question 36

Is the mens rea of conspiracy strict?

Answer 36

Yes.

Question 37

What are some defenses to conspiracy?

Answer 37

1. Mistake of law. | 2. Mistake of fact.

Question 38

What is the mistake of law defense?

Answer 38

It is a defense for a party to have been under the mistaken belief that the group's actions and objections were legal. Because the parties must have had an evil purpose for their union.

Question 39

If one party withdraws from the conspiracy, is that a valid defense?

Answer 39

No. The crime was complete when the parties entered into the agreement. However, if the jurisdiction requires an agreement plus an overt act or substantial steps, and the withdrawal is made before the those acts occur, there is no criminal liability on behalf of the withdrawn party. Also, withdrawal is effective at the time of his or her acts would have conveyed to a reasonable person, standing in a co-conspirator's shoes, that he or she was abandoning the conspiracy. A last-second withdrawal, when it is too late to stop the wheels from turning, is not a defense.

Question 40

Is conspiracy considered a crime, independent of any crime that is the objective of the conspiracy?

Answer 40

Yes. And it is not double jeopardy.

Question 41

What is the Co-conspirator hearsay rule?

Answer 41

The principal that statements by a member of a proven conspiracy may be used as evidence against any of the members of the conspiracy. The rule is limited to statements made during planning and commission of the conspiracy; statements made after are inadmissible.

Question 42

What is hearsay?

Answer 42

A statement about what someone else said (or wrote or otherwise communicated). Hearsay evidence is evidence, concerning what someone said outside of a court proceeding, that is offered in the proceeding to prove the truth of what was said. The hearsay rule bars the admission of hearsay as evidence to prove the hearsay's truth unless allowed by a hearsay exception.

Question 43

Is it true that if one person charged with conspiracy is acquitted, the other is let go?

Answer 43

Yes. Two people (or more) are required to have a conspiracy, if only two people are charged, and one is acquitted, then the other cannot be punished.

Question 44

What is solicitation?

Answer 44

Asking for; enticing; strongly requesting. This may be a crime if the thing being urged is a crime.

Question 45

What are the elements of solicitation?

Answer 45

1. encouraging, requesting, or commanding 2. of another 3. to commit a crime

Question 46

Is solicitation a specific-intent crime?

Answer 46

Yes. The person must intend to convince another to commit an offense. The actus reus of the crime is the solicitation.