Crime & Punishment / MC / First Classes

Question 1

Goals of the criminal justice system

Answer 1

• Identify unwanted conduct
• Establish rules to govern unwanted conduct
• Enforce those rules to:
  
  • Deter future unwanted conduct by perpetrator and others
  • Punish the perpetrator
  • Rehabilitate the perpetrator
  • Incapacitate the perpetrator

Question 2

Steps in criminal justice process

Answer 2

• Investigation
• Dismissal (happens at any point)
• Pretrial Release
• Diversion
• Plea Bargaining (happens at any point)
• Trial

Question 3

Pre-trial diversion

Answer 3

• Results in no conviction
• “Diverted” away with conditions
• Charges dropped on competition of conditions
• Potential abuses
• Disparate impact along race and wealth lines
• “Dismissal for sale” scheme
• Self-interest and favoritism

Question 4

Pros and cons of plea bargaining

Answer 4

• Cost effective
• Alternative to harsh statutory provisions
  
  • Mandatory minimums
  • Required consecutive sentences
  • Three-strikes statutes
• Certainty in an uncertain process
• Proper disposition
• One-sided, no rules and no oversight
• Limits public review of police and prosecutor conduct
• Invites lawyer self-interest, bias and prejudice
• “False” pleas
• Harsher penalties for exercising right to trial (2012 – federal narcotics by guilty plea (5 years 4 mos) versus by trial (16 years)
• Disparate impact in sentencing along race and wealth lines

Question 5

Trial process

Answer 5

• Pretrial motions
• Jury selection
• Opening statements
• Prosecution case-in-chief
• Mid-trial motions
• Defense case-in-chief
• Closing arguments
• Verdict
• Sentencing
• Appeal

Question 6

Reasonable doubt

Answer 6

• In re Winship
• Reasonable doubt standard is used in ALL criminal cases
  
  • SCT held that preponderance of the evidence standard could not be used just because it was a juvenile delinquency proceeding
• Social disutility of convicting an innocent person is worse than releasing a guilty person
• Problems with reasonable doubt - how to explain it to a jury
  
  • Percentages? Grave uncertainty? Moral uncertainty? All rejected as jury instructions

Question 7

The basis for punishment - what case?

Answer 7

• Regina v. Dudley and Stephens
• Three crew members that got lost at sea, eventually ate the smallest crew member to survive - remaining two charged for murder
  
  • Self defense? Necessity? Fairer if they had drawn straws? What use is punishment?
• Found guilty of murder
  
  • Self-defense must be against the threat
  • Necessity is against nature
  • You can’t make a choice to value your own life over an innocent person

Question 8

For a rule to effectively deter, individuals must:

Answer 8

• Individuals must know the rule and penalty
• Individuals must perceive that the costs outweigh the benefits
• Individuals must be able and willing to modify their conduct to conform with the rule

Question 9

Why using recidivism factors as an indicator for sentencing is a problem

Answer 9

• Unfair to punish people for crimes they haven’t committed
• Unjust to rely on predictions that could be wrong
• Discriminatory - because factors are class-based
• Discriminatory - because factors are associated with race

Question 10

Malum in se

Answer 10

• Conduct is wrongful itself
• Examples:
  
  • Theft
  • Murder
  • Rape
  • Larceny
  • Assault & Battery

Question 11

Malum prohibitum

Answer 11

• Conduct is wrongful because legislative prohibition
• Requires a lower intent or no proof of intent (strict liability statutes)
• Examples:
  
  • Jaywalking
  • Speeding
  • Regulatory offenses

Question 12

Plain meaning rule for statutory interpretation

Answer 12

• If a statute has a plain meaning, that meaning controls absent a strong indication of contrary legislative intent.
• Some judges will not even look at other evidence of intent if meaning is plain unless the result would be “absurd.”

Question 13

Rule of Lenity - Statutory Interpretation

Answer 13

If a statute is ambiguous, then the Rule of Lenity requires that the statute be interpreted in favor of the defendant—barring strong evidence of contrary legislative intent.

Question 14

Types of Crimes

Answer 14

• Specific Intent
  
  • Requires an actual subjective intent to cause a specific result
• General Intent
  
  • Requires only an intent to do the prescribed act
• Strict Liability
  
  • Requires no mens rea
    
    • Regulatory offenses
    • Regulation of food, drugs, firearms
    • Morality crimes

Question 15

Mandatory Presumptions

Answer 15

• Shifts the burden of production to the opposing party
• Must be accepted as true, unless rebutted
• A jury instruction creating a mandatory presumption as to an element of the crime charged is unconstitutional and violates due process

Question 16

Permissible Inferences

Answer 16

• Allowed within reason
• Examples:
  
  • It can be inferred that someone intends the “natural and probable consequences of their actions”
  • It can be inferred that someone in “possession of recently stolen property knows that the property is stolen”

Question 17

MPC Culpability - PURPOSELY

Answer 17

A person acts purposely with respect to a material element of an offense:

(i) if the element involves the nature of his conduct or a result thereof, it is his conscious object to engage in conduct of that nature or to cause such a result; and
(ii) if the element involves the attendant circumstances, he is aware of the existence of such circumstances or he believes or hopes that they exist.

Question 18

MPC Culpability - KNOWINGLY

Answer 18

A person acts knowingly with respect to a material element of an offense:

(i) if the element involves the nature of his conduct or the attendant circumstances, he is aware that his conduct is of that nature or that such circumstances exist; and
(ii) if the element involves a result of his conduct, he is aware that it is practically certain that his conduct will cause such a result.

Question 19

MPC Culpability - RECKLESSLY

Answer 19

A person acts recklessly with respect to a material element of an offense when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct.

The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the actor’s situation.

Question 20

MPC Culpability - NEGLIGENTLY

Answer 20

A person acts negligently with respect to a material element of an offense when he should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct.

The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the actor’s failure to perceive it, involves a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would in the actor’s situation.

Question 21

MPC Culpability - Level of culpability required when it is not prescribed in the staute

Answer 21

When the culpability sufficient to establish a material element of an offense is not prescribed by law such element is established if a person acts purposely, knowingly or recklessly with respect thereto.

*** Negligent conduct is insufficient for criminal liability unless prescribed by statute! ***

Question 22

MPC Culpability - When culpability is not prescribed for all elements of the crime

Answer 22

When the law defining an offense prescribes the kind of culpability that is sufficient for the commission of an offense, without distinguishing among the material elements thereof, such provision shall apply to all the material elements of the offense, unless a contrary purpose plainly appears.

Question 23

Elements of every crime

Answer 23

• Actus Reus (Act)
• Mens Rea (Intent)
• Causation
• Concurrence
• Attendant Circumstances