Crim Rules Flashcards
Explain involuntary manslaughter
An unintentional homicide committed by the defendant’s criminal negligence is involuntary manslaughter. Criminal negligence is grossly negligent conduct that puts another person at a significant risk of injury or death. Criminal negligence is a substantial deviation from “ordinary negligence”—i.e., the standard of care a reasonable person would have used. But criminal negligence is less than the extremely reckless conduct required for depraved-heart murder.
By contrast, involuntary manslaughter in some jurisdictions and under the Model Penal Code (MPC) only requires the defendant’s conduct to have been reckless. Reckless conduct is defined as “a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the actor’s situation.” And this second approach requires the defendant to have been actually aware of the risk his conduct posed. For a finding of involuntary manslaughter, there must be a causal connection between the defendant’s criminally negligent or unlawful act and the death.
Explain when a person is liable as an accomplice?
Under the majority and MPC rule, a person is generally an accomplice in the commission of an offense if he intentionally assists with the crime and acts with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of the offense. Mere knowledge that another person intends to commit a crime is not enough to make a person an accomplice. The accomplice must intend that his acts will assist or encourage the criminal aim.
However, when the crime committed by the principal only requires the principal to act recklessly or negligently (e.g., involuntary manslaughter), a person may be an accomplice to that crime under the majority rule if the person merely acts recklessly or negligently with regard to the principal’s commission of the crime, rather than purposefully or intentionally. “Recklessly” requires the defendant to act with a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a material element of a crime exists or will result from his conduct.
