Criminal Law & Procedure Flashcards
Actus Reus
- The act required to commit a given crime.
- A required component of every common law crime, along with mens rea.
- REQUIREMENT: voluntary physical act
- To satisfy the actus reus requirement, D must perform a voluntary physical act, i.e. a voluntary bodily movement.
Omission as actus reus.
A failure to act can constitute actus reus if:
- D had a specific legal duty to act;
- D had knowledge of facts giving rise to the duty; and
- It was reasonably possible for D to perform the duty.
Mens Rea
The mental element required at the time a crime was committed. A required component of every common law crime, along with actus reus.
Forms of mens rea
Intent requirements differ by crime:
- specific intent - D must have a specific intent or objective to commit a given crime: specific intent must always be proven; never inferred. Mistake of fact and voluntary intoxication are available defenses.
- general intent - D must be aware of his actions and any attendant circumstances: May be inferred from the act itself. NOTE: most crimes a general intent crimes.
- malice - D acts with reckless disregard or undertakes an obvious risk, from which a harmful result is expected - Applies to arson and common law murder.
Strict liability
no intent or awareness is required for strict liability crimes (i.e. no mens rea requirement): arises with statutory rape, administrative, regulatory, or mortality crimes.
Model Penal Code Mens Rea Standards
MBE questions occasionally invoke language from the MPC’s fault standards. Thus, it is important to know these definitions:
PURPOSELY (subjective)
KNOWINGLY (subjective)
RECKLESSLY (subjective)
NEGLIGENCE (objective)
NOTE: MBE generally tests common law unless otherwise instructed. Though the MBE usually tells you which law is applicable, when in doubt, apply common law.
PURPOSELY
(subjective): A person acts purposely when his conscious objective is to engage in certain conduct or cause a certain result.
KNOWINGLY
(subjective): A person acts knowingly when he is aware that his conduct is of a particular nature or knows that his conduct will necessarily or very likely cause a particular result.
RECKLESSLY
(subjective): A person acts recklessly when he knows of a substantial and unjustifiable risk and consciously disregards it.
NEGLIGENCE
(objective): A person acts negligently when he fails to become aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
(Major Crimes & Requisite Mens Rea)
General Intent:
General Intent:
- Battery
- Rape
- Kidnapping
- False imprisonment
(Major Crimes & Requisite Mens Rea)
Specific Intent
Specific Intent:
- Attempt
- Larceny & Robbery
- Forgery
- False pretenses
- Embezzlement
- Conspiracy
- Assault
- Burglary
- First-degree murder
- Solicitation
(Major Crimes & Requisite Mens Rea)
Malice
Malice:
- Common law murder
- Arson
(Major Crimes & Requisite Mens Rea)
Strict Liability
Strict Liability:
- Statutory rape
- Regulatory crimes
- Administrative crimes
- Morality crimes (bigamy, polygamy)
Concurrence
D’s criminal act and the requiste intent (i.e. mens rea) for the crime must occur simultaneously.
E.g. D plans on murdering victim at her home - D is not guilty of murder if he accidentally runs over victim with his car before reaching her house.
Causation
D’s conduct must be both the cause-in-fact (actual cause) and the proximate cause of the crime committed.
NOTE: Causation issues often arise in homicide crimes on the MBE.
Cause-in-fact (actual cause)
But for D’s conduct, the result would not have occurred.
NOTE: Homicide and manslaughter - any act by D that hastens victim’s death is a cause-in-fact, even if death is already inevitable.
Proximate cause
The actual result is the natural and probably consequence of D’s conduct, even if it did not occur exactly as expected.
SUPERSEDING FACTORS - break the chain of causation
INTERVENING FACTORS - must be entirely unforeseeable to shield D from liability (e.g. with victim’s refusal of medical treatment, third party negligence - both are foreseeable and D is liable)
Transferred intent doctrine
D may be held liable if he intends the harm caused, but causes it to a different victim or object than intended.
Most often applies to homicide, battery and arson.
Does NOT apply to attempt.
Defenses and mitigating circumstances may also be transferred.
EFFECT: Under transferred intent, D is usually charged with two crimes:
- Attempt (to commit the originally intended crime) AND
- The actual resulting crime.
e. g. D intends to shoot A but kills B; D can be charged with the attempted murder of A and the actual murder of B
NOTE: Merger does not apply because there are different victims.
Merger
Under the merger doctrine, two or more offenses merge, prohibiting D from being prosecuted separately for each crime.
- Merger concerns the relationship between either a) an inchoate offense and its completed substantive offense, or b) an offense and its lesser included offense.
Merger of Inchoate Offenses
Only applies to solicitation and attempt.
Merger prevents D from being convicted for both solicitation/attempt and the target offense.
e.g. D completes a burglary after attempting it; D cannot be convicted of both attempt and burglary.
Does not apply to conspiracy (i.e. D can be convicted of conspiracy to commit a given crime and the crime itself).
Merger with Lesser Included Offenses
D cannot be convicted of a target crime and a lesser included offense.
Lesser included offense = consists of same but not all elements as the greater crime.
e.g D robs V, but during the robbery D’s accomplice kills V; D can be convicted of felony murder but not the lesser included robbery offense.
NOTE: This is also barred by double jeopardy.
NOTE: Crimes with different victims never merge.
Accomplice Liability
Requirements: to be liable as an accomplice, one must:
- Aid, counsel, or encourage principal before or during the crime…
- With the intent
a. to assist the principal AND
b. that the principal commit the crime.
Scope of Liability: Accomplice is liable for the crimes he committed or counseled and any other probable or foreseeable crimes committed.
Defenses and exceptions to accomplice liability.
Accomplice liability does not apply where:
