Criminal Law Flashcards
Essential Elements of a Crime - there are four
Almost all crimes require proof of the following four core elements:
(1) Physical Act (actus reus). The defendant must have either performed a voluntary physical act or failed to act under circumstances imposing a legal duty to act.
(2) Mental State (mens rea). The defendant must have committed the offense with a culpable state of mind. However, a defendant need not know that their conduct is illegal to be guilty of a crime.
(3) Causation. There must be a casual connection between the defendant’s physical act or failure to act and the harmful result.
(4) Concurrence. The requisite mental state must be present at the same time the physical act constituting the crime occurs.
Mental State Requirements (Common Law)
The common law requires that one of the following four different mental states be proven depending on the crime committed:
(1) Specific Intent
(2) Malice
(3) General Intent
(4) Strict Liability
Specific Intent
This requires that the crime be committed with a specific intent or objective. The existence of specific intent cannot be conclusively imputed from the mere doing of an act, but the manner in which the crime was committed may provide evidence of intent.
The following are specific intent crimes (and the specific intent required): Solicitation, attempt, conspiracy, first degree murder, assault, larceny, robbery, burglary, forgery, false pretenses, embezzlement.
What is the intent necessary for malice crimes? what are malice crimes?
The intent necessary for malice crimes require a reckless disregard of an obvious or high risk that the particular harmful result will occur.
Defenses to specific intent crimes (e.g., voluntary intoxication) do NOT apply to malice crimes. Malice crimes include: Common Law Murder; AND Arson.
General Intent
General intent is a “catch-all” category of intent. It requires that the defendant intend to commit an act that is prohibited by law (whether the defendant intended the act’s result is irrelevant). General intent crimes include: Battery; Rape; Manslaughter; Kidnapping; AND False Imprisonment
Strict Liability offenses
Strict liability only requires that the defendant voluntarily commit the actus reus (regardless of the defendant’s intent). Defenses that negate state of mind (e.g., mistake of fact) are NOT available.
Strict liability offenses include:
Statutory Rape; Selling Liquor to Minors; AND Bigamy (some jurisdictions)
Mental State Requirements (Modern Penal Code)
The Model Penal Code eliminates the common law distinctions between general and specific intent and adopts the following four categories of intent:
(1) Purposely. A defendant acts “purposely” when his conscious objective is to engage in the conduct or to cause a certain result.
(2) Knowingly or willfully. A defendant acts “knowingly or willingly” when the defendant is aware that his conduct is of the nature required by the crime or that circumstances required by the crime exist.
(3) Recklessly. A defendant acts “recklessly” when the defendant acts with a conscious disregard of substantial and unjustifiable risk that a material
element of a crime exists or will result from his conduct. The risk must constitute a gross deviation from the standard of conduct of a law-abiding person.
(4) Negligently. A defendant acts “negligently” when the defendant fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a material element of a crime exists or will result from his conduct. The risk must constitute a gross deviation from the standard of conduct of a reasonable person in the same situation.
Common Law Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.
state of mind for malice aforethought
Malice aforethought exists if there are NO facts reducing the killing to voluntary manslaughter or excusing it AND it was committed with one of the following states of mind:
(1) Intent to kill;
(2) Intent to inflict great bodily injury;
(3) Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (“depraved heart murder”); OR
(4) Intent to commit a felony (under the felony murder rule)
Voluntary Manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter is a killing that would be murder BUT FOR the existence of adequate provocation. Provocation is adequate only if:
(1) It was a provocation that would arouse sudden and intense passion in the mind of an ordinary person, causing him to lose self-control;
AND
(2) There was NOT sufficient time between the provocation and the killing for passions of a reasonable person to cool off.
Involuntary Manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter is an unintentional killing committed:
(1) With criminal negligence; OR
(2) In the commission of a misdemeanor or in the commission of a felony that is not statutorily treated as 1st degree felony murder or 2nd degree murder.
First and Second Degree Murder
In some jurisdictions, murder is divided into degrees by statute. Generally, a murder is 2nd degree murder UNLESS it falls under any of the following statutory aggravating circumstances, which make it 1st degree murder:
(1) Premeditation. The murder was deliberate and premeditated. If the defendant made the decision to kill in a cool and dispassionate manner and actually reflected on the idea of killing, even if only for a very brief period (e.g., a few seconds), it is 1st degree murder.
(2) Felony Murder. The murder falls under a 1st degree felony murder statute. In many states, a killing committed during the commission of an enumerated felony is felony murder and called 1st degree murder.
The most commonly listed felonies in such statutes are burglary, arson, rape, robbery, and kidnapping (BARRK); however, other felonies that are inherently dangerous to human life are often included as well.
(3) Heinous Murder. The murder is performed in a certain way (e.g., torture, mutilation, etc.). Some states make these types of killings 1st degree murder.
Felony Murder Rule
limitation to the felony murder rule
Any death caused in the commission of, or in an attempt to commit, a felony is murder. However there are several limitations to this rule:
(1) The defendant must have committed or attempted to commit the underlying felony – a defense that negates an element of an underlying offense will also be a defense to felony murder;
(2) The felony must be distinct from the killing itself;
(3) The death must have been a foreseeable result of the felony; AND
(4) The death must have been caused before the defendant’s “immediate flight” from when the felony ended.
Homicide Causation
To be liable for homicide, the defendant’s conduct must be BOTH the cause-in-fact and the proximate cause of the victim’s death:
(1) Cause-In-Fact. A defendant’s conduct is the cause-in-fact of the victim’s death if the death would not have occurred BUT FOR the defendant’s conduct.
(2) Proximate Cause. A defendant’s conduct is the proximate cause of the victim’s death if the death is a natural and probable consequence of defendant’s
conduct. Superseding events break the chain of proximate causation (i.e., intervening events that are NOT foreseeable generally shield the defendant).
Battery
Battery is the:
(1) Unlawful (without legal excuse);
(2) Application of force;
(3) To the person of another;
(4) That results in bodily harm or offensive contact.
Remember, battery is a general intent crime (intent to cause injury is NOT necessary – only the intent to do the unlawful act is required).
Assault
Assault is either:
(1) An attempt to commit a battery; OR
(2) Intentionally placing another in apprehension of imminent bodily harm.
If there has been physical contact with the victim, the crime can only be battery, not assault.
False Imprisonment
False imprisonment consists of the:
(1) Unlawful (without legal excuse);
(2) Confinement of a person;
(3) Without valid consent.
Remember, false imprisonment is a general intent crime (intent to cause injury is NOT necessary – only the intent to do the unlawful act is required).
Kidnapping
Modern statutes define kidnapping as unlawful confinement of a person that involves either:
(1) Some movement of the victim; OR
(2) Hiding the victim.
Remember, kidnapping is a general intent crime (intent to cause injury is NOT necessary – only the intent to do the unlawful act is required).
Rape
Common law rape requires:
(1) Unlawful sexual intercourse;
(2) With a female;
(3) Against her will by force or threat of force.
However, most modern day rape statutes have relaxed the common law elements. There is now rape that:
(1) Does not have to involve a woman;
(2) Can occur without force or threat of force (e.g., involuntary intoxication); AND
(3) Can involve activity other than intercourse.
Statutory Rape
Statutory rape requires only that there is sexual intercourse with a person under age.
The defendant’s reasonable mistake of fact as to the victim’s age will NOT shield the defendant’s liability, because statutory rape is a strict liability crime.
Larceny
Larceny consists of:
(1) A taking (obtaining possession);
(2) And carrying away;
(3) Of the personal property (not real property) of another;
(4) By trespass (without consent);
(5) With intent to permanently deprive.
Embezzlement
Embezzlement consists of:
(1) The fraudulent conversion;
(2) Of the personal property of another;
(3) By a person in lawful possession of that property.
Note: Custody of the property is insufficient – the defendant must be in lawful possession of the property when the conversion occurs for it to
constitute embezzlement. Possession involves a greater scope of authority to deal with property than does custody (e.g., low level employees usually only have custody of their employer’s property – thus, they commit larceny if they take it).
