Common Law Definitions Flashcards
Actus Reus
Consists of (1) a voluntary act (or failure to act); (2) that causes; (3) social harm
There is no general duty to act unless:
(1) Statutory Obligation
(2) Status Relationship
(3) Contractual Duty
(4) Voluntary Assumption of Duty
(5) Creation of Peril (if caused risk or harm)
Mens Rea
The particular mental state provided for in the definition of an offense
Intentionally
A person intentionally causes harm of an offense if (1) it is his desire to cause the social harm; or (2) he acts with knowledge that the social harm is virtually certain to occur as a result of his conduct
Knowingly
A person has knowledge of a material fact if he: (1) is aware of the fact; or (2) correctly believes that the fact exists
Willfully
An act done with a bad purpose; an intentional violation of a known legal duty or purpose to disobey the law
Negligently
A gross deviation from the standard of reasonable care, taking into account the gravity of the harm that foreseeably would result from the defendant’s conduct, the probability of such harm occurring, and the burden or loss to the defendant’s desisting from the risky conduct
Recklessly
The actor disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of which he was aware
Strict Liability
Authorizes conviction of a morally innocent person for violation of an offense, even though the crime, by definition, requires proof of mens rea
Criminal Causation
Actual causation + Legal Causation
Common Law Legal Causation
“But For” Test + Was there a dependent intervening cause
Dependent Intervening Cause
A foreseeable intervening cause reasonably related to the defendant’s conduct
Independent Intervening Cause
An unforeseeable intervening cause not reasonably related to the defendant’s conduct
Common Law Year and a Day Rule
Defendant can’t be charged with homicide unless victim died within a year and day
Concurrent Causation
Two independent acts at (or near) the same time that would each independently cause the result
Negligent Medical Care
Common law considered medical care as a normal and foreseeable response to a wound/injury and was only intervening if it was “outrageously improper or inappropriate to be regarded as abnormal.” Merely negligent medical care is not outrageously improper or inappropriate
Complicity
A theory of criminal liability, not a standalone crime
Principal in the First Degree
Person who with the requisite mens rea
(1) Physically commits the acts that constitute the offense; or
(2) Commits the offense by use of an “innocent instrumentality” or “innocent human agent”
Principal in the Second Degree
Person who is guilty by reason of having intentionally assisted in the commission of the crime in the presence, either actual or constructive, of the principal in the first degree
Accessory Before the Fact
Does not differ from a principal in the second degree, except that he is not actually constructively present when the crime is committed
Accessory After the Fact
One who, with actual knowledge of another’s guilt, intentionally assists the felon to avoid arrest, trial, or conviction
Mens Rea of Accomplice Liability
Intent to assist a principal actor in committing the target act, AND
Intent that the principal actually commit that act
Merger of Accomplice Liability
Modern codes merge principals in the first degree, second degree, and accomplices before the fact
To establish mens rea for accomplice liability
Prosecution must establish the defendant actually aided, abetted, or encouraged the commission of the offense
Vicarious Liability
If a corporation is held criminally responsible, it is generally for public welfare or regulatory offenses. Generally strict liability
Common Law Actus Reus of Attempt Analysis
- Physical Proximity
- Dangerous proximity
- Indispensable Element
- Probable Desistance
- Abnormal Step
- Res Ipsa loquitur/Unequivocality Test
Physical Proximity (Attempt Analysis)
An actor’s conduct must approach sufficiently near to the last act or be a subsequent step in a direct movement towards the commission of the offense after the preparations are made
Dangerous Proximity (Attempt Analysis)
When an actor’s conduct is in “dangerous proximity to success” or when it is “so near to the result that the danger of success is very great”
Indispensable Element (Attempt Analysis)
Any indispensable aspect of the criminal endeavor over which the actor has not yet acquired control. An actor who does not yet possess a necessary instrumentality for the crime has not yet crossed the line from preparation to perpetration
Probable Desistance (Attempt Analysis)
The actor reached a point where it was unlikely that he would have voluntarily desisted from his effort to commit the crime
Abnormal Step (Attempt Analysis)
When an actor takes a series of steps in preparation for a crime, then takes a step that a normal noncriminal person would have come to their good senses and held back from taking
Res Ipsa/Unequivocality (Attempt Analysis)
An attempt occurs when a person’s conduct, standing alone, unambiguously manifests her criminal intent
MPC Abandonment
Accepts abandonment as an affirmative defense. Renunciation and abandonment must be a complete and voluntary renunciation not motivated by probability of detection
Common Law Impossibility
Legal impossibility is a defense, factual impossibility is not
*MPC does not recognize legal impossibility as a defense
Conspiracy
An agreement, express or implied, between two or more persons to commit a criminal act or series of criminal acts, or to accomplish a legal act by unlawful means
*No act in furtherance needs to be proved
Homicide
Killing of a human being by another human being
Criminal Homicide
A killing without justification or excuse
Assault
An attempted battery or the intentional creation of the imminent apprehension of a battery
Battery
The harmful or offensive touching of another person
Stalking
Defendant’s course of conduct is aimed at a specific person, the conduct causes fear in that person, it happens at least twice, requires some credible threat, and must allow threats implied by conduct
Common Law Self-Defense
Needs to establish:
1. defendant’s reasonable belief that
2. the conduct of another person poses a threat of death or great bodily injury; and
3. that such harm is imminent; so that
4. the use of deadly force is necessary to protect the defendant
Castle Doctrine
No duty to retreat in your own home
Aggressor Rule
A person who is the original aggressor cannot invoke self-defense
Defense of Others
A person is justified in using force to protect a third party from unlawful use of force by an aggressor. The intervenor may use force and to the extent that the third party would apparently be justified in using force to protect themself
Necessity
Allowed under common law only when facing imminent injury with no viable alternative other than violation of the law
Voluntary Intoxication
Not a defense to general intent crimes, is a defense to specific intent crimes
Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity
Implies that the prosecution proved all of the elements of the crime, including the defendant’s mens rea, beyond a reasonable doubt, and that all of the defendant’s non-insanity defenses were rejected, but that the accused was insane at the time of the crime
M’Naghten Test
At the time of the act, the party accused of laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind that
1. he did not know the nature and quality of what he was doing; or,
2. he did not know he was doing wrong
Theft by False Pretenses
Victim intended to transfer ownership of money to the accused
Larceny by Trick
If defendant obtains possession of property for a specific purpose but the owner does not give up title
Cash
Does not pass if the person is to spend it only for a particular purpose
Larceny
Wrongful taking and carrying away of personal property in the possession of another person, without consent, with the intent to convert it or deprive the possessor of the property permanently
Embezzlement
When a person fraudulently converted the property of another person while in lawful possession of that property
False Pretenses
When a person knowingly misrepresents material facts to defraud another person giving him or her title to that person’s property
Receiving Stolen Property
When a person gains control over property believing that it was obtained criminally, intending to deprive the owner of his or her interest in it permanently, did not apply if the property was not actually stolen (but if person believed it to be stolen likely guilty of attempted receipt of stolen property)
Robbery
Wrongful taking and carrying away of personal property in the possession of another person, through the use or threat of violence or force, with the intent to convert it or deprive the possessor permanently
Carjacking
Aggravated form of robbery where the victim’s car is taken by force or fear
Burglary
When a person broke and entered into another person’s dwelling at night with the specific intent to commit a felony inside
Common Law Bilateral Conspiracy Approach
Requires at least two people in actual agreement
Duress
- Another person threatened to kill or grievously injure the actor or a third party, particularly a near relative
- The actor reasonably believed that the threat was
genuine - The threat was “present, imminent, and impending” at the time of the criminal act.
- There was no reasonable escape from the threat except through compliance with the demands.
- The actor was not at fault for exposing himself to the
threat.
