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Criminal law Flashcards

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1
Q

Jurisdiction

A

A state acquires jurisdiction over a crime if either the conduct or the result happened in that state

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2
Q

Essential elements of crime

A

Act - Actus reus
+ Mental state - Mens rea
+ Concurrence - Physical act and mental act existing at the same time
+ Harmful result and causation - A harmful result caused by the defendant’s act

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3
Q

Merger

A

Generally there is no merger of crimes in American law

BUT solicitation and attempt do merge into the substantive offense
- So you can’t be charged with a completed crime and an attempt to commit that crime

Note - Conspiracy does not merge into the substantive offense - so you can be convicted of conspiring to do something and doing it

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4
Q

Essential elements of crime: Physical act

A

An act can be any bodily movement - but the act must be a voluntary act

  • Examples of bodily movement that do not qualify for criminal liability:
    1. Conduct which is not the product of your own volition - e.g. a reflexive or convulsive act
    2. An act performed while you are unconscious or asleep
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5
Q

Essential elements of a crime: An omission as an act

A

Generally, there is no legal duty to rescue, but sometimes there is a legal duty to act

Legal duty to act can arise in one of five circumstances:

  1. By statute
  2. By contract
  3. Because of the relationship between the parties
  4. Because you voluntarily assume a duty of care and fail to adequately perform it
  5. Where your conduct created the peril.
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6
Q

Common law mental states of a crime

A
  1. Specific intent crimes
  2. Malice crimes
  3. General intent crimes
  4. Strict liability crimes
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7
Q

Common law - Specific intent crimes

A

The importance of specific intent crimes is that they will qualify for additional defenses not available to other types of crimes

Includes: SCAFALEFRBEF - 
S - Solicitation 
C - Conspiracy 
A - Attempt 
F - First degree murder 
A - Assault 
L - Larceny 
E - Embezzeement 
F - Forgery 
R - Robbery 
B - Burglary 
F - False pretenses
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8
Q

Common law - Malice crimes

A

Murder and arson

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9
Q

Common law - General intent crimes

A

General intent is the big catch-all category

All crimes not so far mentioned are general intent crimes unless the qualify for strict liability

General intent means that the Defendant has a general awareness that she is acting in a manner that would be prohibited by law

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10
Q

Common law - Strict liability

A

No intent crimes

The importance of strict liability is that any defense that negates intention cannot be a defense to the no intent crimes of strict liability

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11
Q

Mental states and the model penal code analysis of fault

A

Purposely: One acts purposely when it is his conscious objective to engage in certain conduct or cause a certain result

Knowingly: One acts knowingly when he is aware that his conduct will very likely cause the result

Recklessly: One acts recklessly when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk

Negligently: One acts negligently when he fails to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk

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12
Q

Concurrence and causation

A

Concurrence: The defendant must have had the intent necessary for the crime at the time he committed the act constituting the crime

Causation: Some crimes (e.g. homicide) requires a harmful result and causation. Thus, when a crime is defined to require not merely conduct, but also a specified result. the defendant’s conduct must be both the cause in fact and the proximate cause of the specified result

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13
Q

Accomplice liability - Common law parties to a crime

A

Principals in the first degree: Persons who actually engage in the act that constitutes the criminal offense

Principals in the second degree: Persons who aid, advise, or encourage the principal and are present at the crime

Accessories before the fact: Persons who aid, advise, or encourage the principal but are not present at the crime

Accessories after the fact: Persons who assist the principal after the crime

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14
Q

Parties to a crime - Modern statutes

A

Most jurisdictions have abolished the distinction between principals in the first degree, principals in the second-degree, and accessories before the fact

Principal: One who, with the requisite mental state, actually engages in the act or omission that causes the criminal result

Accomplice: One who aids, advises, or encourages the principal in the commission of the crime charged

Accessory after the fact: One who receives, comforts, or assists another knowing that he has committed a felony, in order to help the felon escape arrest, trial or conviction

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15
Q

Mental state required for accomplice liability

A

In order to be convicted of a substantive crime as an accomplice, the accomplice must have

  1. The intent to assist the principal in the commission of the crime
  2. The intent that the principal commit the crime
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16
Q

Scope of liability for accomplices

A

An accomplice is responsible for the crimes she committed or aided/advised/encouraged and for any other crimes committed in the course of committing the crime contemplated, as long as the other crimes were probable and foreseeable

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17
Q

Accomplices and withdrawal

A

If the person encouraged the crime, the person must repudiate the encouragement

If the person aided by providing assistance to the principal (such as providing materials), he must do everything possible to neutralize this assistance (such as attempting to retrieve the materials)

An alternative means of withdrawing is to contact the police

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18
Q

Inchoate offenses

A

Inchoate means incomplete - includes:

  1. Conspiracy
  2. Solicitation
  3. Attempt
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19
Q

Inchoates - Conspiracy

A

Conspiracy is an agreement, with an intent to agree, and an intent to pursue an unlawful objective

No merger: Conspiracy does not merge with the substantive offense - you can be convicted of conspiring to do something and doing it

Agreement required for conspiracy: The agreement need not be expressed. Intent can be inferred from conduct

Bilateral approach: The traditional common law rule required two guilty parties - thus, under this approach, if one person is merely feigning agreement, the other person cannot be guilty of conspiracy.
- Also - an acquittal of all persons with whom a defendant is alleged to have conspired precludes conviction of the remaining defendant under this approach

Unilateral approach: The modern trend and MPC approach requires that only one person have a genuine criminal intent

Overt act requirement: The majority rule is that in order to ground liability for conspiracy there must be an agreement plus some overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy
- The minority rule and the common law rule grounded liability for conspiracy with the agreement itself

Factual impossibility: Factual impossibility is no defense to conspiracy

Withdrawal: Withdrawal, even if it’s adequate, can never relieve the defendant from liability for the conspiracy itself. The defendant can withdraw from liability for the other conspirator’s subsequent crimes, but not from this conspiracy

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20
Q

Inchoates - Solicitation

A

Rule: Solicitation is asking someone to commit a crime. The crime of solicitation ends when you ask them

Common law: It’s not necessary that the person solicited agree to commit the crime
- If they do agree, it becomes a conspiracy and the solicitation merges and the only crime left when the other person agrees to do is conspiracy

Note: Factual impossibility is no defense

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21
Q

Inchoates - Attempt

A

Rule: Specific intent + Overt act in furtherance of the crime

For purposes of attempt, the overt act must be a substantial step in furtherance of the commission of the crime; mere preparation cannot ground liability

Defense of abandonment - The majority rule is that, once Defendant has taken a substantial step toward committing the crime, abandonment is never a defense
- The MPC allows for this defense only if it is fully voluntary and a complete renunciation of criminal purpose

Impossibility: Legal impossibility is a defense to attempt but factual impossibility is not a defense

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22
Q

Common law murder

A

Common law murder: Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. Includes -

  • Intent to kill
  • Intent to commit a felony
  • Intent to inflict great bodily harm
  • Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life
23
Q

First degree murder

A

Includes:

  1. Premeditated killing:
    - The victim must be human
    - The defendant must have acted with intent or knowledge that his conduct would cause death
  2. Felony murder
  3. Homicide of a police officer
    - The defendant must know the victim is a law enforcement officer
    - The victim must be acting in the line of duty
24
Q

Second degree murder

A

In many states, second-degree murder is classified as “depraved heart” killing - a killing done with reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life, OR murders that are not classified as first degree murders

25
Q

Felony murder

A

Any killing - even an accidental killing - committed during the course of a felony

Defenses:
1. If the defendant has a defense to the underlying felony, then she has a defense to felony murder

26
Q

Voluntary manslaughter

A
  1. Killing in the hear of passion resulting from adequate provocation by the victim
  2. The provocation must be one that would arouse sudden and intense passion in the mind of an ordinary person such to cause him to lose self-control
  3. There must not have been a sufficient time between the provocation and the killing for the passions of a reasonable person to cool, and
  4. The Defendant in fact did not cool off between the provocation and the killing
27
Q

Imperfect self-defense

A

If the defendant has an honest but unreasonable belief that his life was in imminent danger, the defense will reduce a murder to manslaughter

Note: Only some states recognize this doctrine

28
Q

Involuntary manslaughter

A
  1. A killing of criminal negligence, or

2. Misdemeanor manslaughter - killing someone while committing a misdemeanor or an unenumerated felony

29
Q

Causation and homicide

A

Cause in fact: The defendant’s conduct must be the cause-in-fact of the victim’s death
- The death would not have occurred but for the defendant’s conduct

Proximate cause: The general rule is that a defendant is responsible for results that occur as a natural and probable consequence of his conduct even if he did not anticipate the exact manner in which they would occur

30
Q

Battery

A

Unlawful application of force to the person resulting in either bodily injury or offensive touching

A battery doesn’t need to be intentional

The force doesn’t need to be applied directly

Battery is a general intent crime

31
Q

Assault

A
  1. An attempt to commit a battery, or
  2. The intentional creation - other than by mere words - of a reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily harm

Assault/battery distinction - If there has been an actual touching, the crime is battery

32
Q

Aggravated assault

A
  1. An attempt to commit a battery, or
  2. The intentional creation, other than by mere words, of a reasaonble apprenehsion of imminent bodily harm, AND
  3. The use of a deadly or dangerous weapon; OR
  4. Intent to rape, maim or murder
33
Q

False imprisonment

A

Rule: Unlawful confinement of a person without his valid consent

If a known alternate route is available, the confinment element will not be met for purposes of false imprisonment

34
Q

Kidnapping

A

Confinmenet of a person with either,

  1. Some movement
  2. Concealment in a secret place
35
Q

Rape

A

The slightest penetration completes the crime

36
Q

Embezzlement

A

Fraudulent conversion of property of another

37
Q

Statutory rape

A

Strict liability offense, meaning consent of the victim is no defense and mistake of fact is no defense

38
Q

Larceny

A

Wrongful taking, a carrying away of property of another by trepass with intent to permanently deprive

  • The slightest movement is enough
  • The intent to deprive the owner permanently must exist at the time of the taking or it’s not larceny
  • -> BUT if a person takes property not intending to steal it, but then later decides to keep the property, she can be guilty of larceny under the theory of continuing trespass
  • Taking property in the belief that it’s yours is NOT common law larcney
39
Q

False pretenses

A

The defendant persuades the owner of property to convey title by false representation

Distinguish from larceny by trick - if only possession of the property is obtained, the offense is larceny by trick. If title is obtained, the offense is false pretenses

40
Q

Robbery

A
  1. The taking of personal property of another
  2. From the other’s presence
  3. By force or threat of imminent harm
  4. with the intent to permanently deprive him of it
41
Q

Extortion

A

Knowingly seeking to obtain property or services by means of future threat

Note - You don’t have to take anything from the person or his presence to be extortion

Note - the threats are of future harm, not imminent harm

42
Q

Forgery

A

The making or altering of a false writing with intent to defraud

Any writing that has apparent legal significance can be subject to forgery

43
Q

Burglary

A

The breaking and entering into a dwelling of another at night with intent to commit a felony therein

Breaking can be actual or constructive
- BUT note - it’s not an actual breaking for someone to come uninvited through a wide open door or window; but if someone pushes open an interior door to the bedroom or living room, then a breaking exists

Entering occurs when any part of the body crosses into the house

Must be a DWELLING house of another - cannot be a barn or commercial structure

The intent to commit the felony msut exist at the time of the breaking and entering or it is NOT a common law burglary

44
Q

Arson

A

Malicious burning of the dwelling of another
- No specific intent is required - Acting with reckless disregard of an obvious risk that teh structure would burn will suffice

Only applies to burning, not to smoke damage

  • Scorching is INSUFFICIENT
  • Charring is SUFFICIENT

At common law

  • the building burned had to be a dwelling, it couldn’t be a barn or commercial structure
  • the burning had to be a house of an other - one couldn’t be guilty of burning her how house at common law
45
Q

Defense - Insanty

A

M’Naghten rule: At the time of his conduct, Defendant lacked the ability to know the wrongfulness of his actions or understand the nature and quality of his actions

Irresistible impulse: Defendant lacked the capacity for self-control and free choice

Durham rule: Defendant’s conduct was the product of mental illness

Model penal code: Defendant lacked the ability to conform his conduct to the requirements of law

46
Q

Defenses: Intoxication

A

Voluntary intoxication - Self-induced intoxication: Voluntary intoxication is a defense on the bar exam only to SPECIFIC INTENT crimes

Involuntary intoxication:

  1. Unknowingly being intoxicated
  2. Beconming intexicated under durress
    - -> This is a form of INSANITY and is a defense to ALL crimes
47
Q

Self defense

A

Non-deadly force: A victim may use non-deadly self-defense any time the victim reasonably believes that force is about to be used on him

Deadly force:

  • Majority rule: A victim may use deadly force in self-defense any time the victim reasonably believes that deadly force is about to be used on him
  • Minority rule: A victim is requried to retreat if it is safe to do so - but there are three excpetions
    1. No duty to retreat from your home
    2. No duty to retreat if you are the victim of a rape or a robbery and
    3. Police officers have no duty to retreat

Original aggressor and self defense - To get back the defense of self-defense, the original aggressor must:

  1. Withdraw
  2. Communicate that withdraw
    - If the victim of the intial aggression suddently escalates a minor fight into one involving deadly force and doesn’t give the aggressor the chance to withdraw, the original aggressor may use force in his own defense, including deadly force, if reasonable
48
Q

Defense of others

A

A defendant can raise a defense of others defense if he reasonably believes that the person assisted woudl have had the right to use force in his own defense

Majority rule: There need not be a special relationship between the defendant and the person in whose defense he acted

49
Q

Duress

A

Duress is a defense to a criminal act if:

  1. The person acts under the threat of imminent infliction of death or great bodily harm, and
  2. That belief is reasonable

Threats to harm a third person may also suffice to establish the defense of duress

Duress is a defense to all crimes except homicide

50
Q

Necessity

A

Conduct that would otherwise be criminal is justifiable if, as a result of pressure from natural forces, the defendant reasonably believes that his conduct was necessary to avoid greater societal harm

The necessity defense differs from duress involves a human threat and necessity involves pressure from natural forces

51
Q

Defense of a dwelling

A

Deadly force may never be used solely to defend your property

52
Q

Mistake of fact

A

Mistake of fact is a defense only when the mistake negates intention

The mistake has to be reasonable to be a defense to a malice or general intent crime

BUT, any mistake, no matter how ridiculous, is a defense if the defendant is charged with a specific intent crime

Mistake of fact is never a defense to strict liablity crimes

53
Q

Mistake/ignorance of the law

A

General rule: It’s not a defense to a crime that the defendant was unaware that her acts were prohibited by law or that she mistakenly believed that her acts were not prohibited

54
Q

Entrapment

A

Entrapment is a valid defense only if:

  1. The criminal design originated with law enforcement, and
  2. The defendant must not have been predisposed to commit the crime

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