Offenses Against the Person

Question 1

What is battery?

Answer 1

Unlawful application of force to the person of another resulting in bodily injury or an offensive touching. Need not be intentional, need not be direct force.

Simple battery = misdemeanor and some jds allow consent defense

Question 2

What is aggravated battery?

Answer 2

Usually treated as a felony – battery with a deadly weapon, battery resulting in serious bodily harm, or battery of a child, woman or cop

Question 3

What is assault?>

Answer 3

Either (1) attempted battery (this is specific intent!), or (2) intentional creation other than by mere words of a reasonable apprehension in the mind of the victim of imminent bodily harm

(actual touching = battery)

Some jds have eliminated battery and refer to all of it as assault

Question 4

What is aggravated assault?

Answer 4

Assault with a deadly weapon or with intent to rape or maim

Question 5

What is mayhem?

Answer 5

dismemberment or disablement of a body part. modern trend incorporates this into aggravated battery

Question 6

What categories of criminal homicide are there at common law?

Answer 6

Murder
Voluntary manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter

Question 7

What is murder?

Answer 7

Unlawful killing of a human with malice aforethought

Question 8

When does malice aforethought exist?

Answer 8

No facts reducing the killing to voluntary manslaughter or excusing it exist and it was committed with one of the following:
1 - intent to kill
2 - intent to commit great bodily injury
3 - reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (“abandoned and malignant heart”)
4 - intent to commit a felony (felony murder)

Question 9

What inference is raised by intentional use of a deadly weapon?

Answer 9

Permissive inference of intent to kill

Question 10

What is voluntary manslaughter?

Answer 10

Killing that would be murder but for the existence of adequate provocation

Question 11

When is provocation adequate to reduce a murder to voluntary manslaughter?

Answer 11

(1) [objective] provocation would arouse sudden and intense passion in the mind of an ordinary person, causing them to lose self-control [finding your spouse having sex with someone else, being the victim of a serious battery]
(2) [subjective] defendant is actually provoked
(3) not enough time between provocation and killing for the passions of a reasonable person to cool off
(4) defendant did not in fact cool off

Question 12

When does imperfect self-defense reduce a murder to voluntary manslaughter?

Answer 12

where defendant has some but not all the elements of a self-defense claim (e.g., does not qualify because they were the initial aggressor or because the unreasonably but honestly believed in the ability to use deadly force)

Question 13

When is a killing involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 13

If committed either with criminal negligence (common law) or by recklessness (MPC), or in some ads during the commission of an unlawful act outside the scope of the felony murder rule

Distinction from malignant heart: substantial risk of death, rather than high risk

Question 14

In states dividing murder by degree, what are the types of murder?

Answer 14

A murder similar to common law murder will be second-degree murder unless it comes within certain circumstances making it first degree:

• • deliberate and premeditated (decision to kill made in a cool and dispassionate manner with actual reflection on the idea of killing)
• • felony murder
• *some states: killing committed during the commission of an enumerated felony = 1st degree/killing in commission of any other felony = 2d degree
• *some states: first degree
• *some states: inherently dangerous felony = 1st degree

Question 15

What is felony murder?

Answer 15

Any death caused by the commission of or during the attempt to commit a felony (malice implied from intent to commit underlying felony. Requirements:

(1) Defendant must have committed/attempted the felony (defense to underlying defense is defense to the murder).
(2) The felony must be distinct from the murder itself (commission of aggravated battery resulting in murder is not an underlying felony for this purpose).
(3) death must have been foreseeable result of felony
(4) death occurs before defendant’s immediate flight (any death occurring after felon reaches a place of temporary safety is not felony murder)

Question 16

Is a defendant liable for felony murder for the death of a co-defendant by someone else?

Answer 16

Not in most jds

Question 17

Is a defendant liable for the deaths of others caused someone other than a co-felon?

Answer 17

Under the proximate cause theory, yes.
Under the agency theory, the killing must be committed by a felon or their agent (except in cases where victim used as shield or placed in dangerous situation by felon)

Question 18

What are the causation requirements for homicide crimes?

Answer 18

Defendant’s conduct must be cause in fact and proximate cause.

Cause in fact when the result would not have occurred but for the conduct
Proximate cause if the result is a natural and probable consequence, even if the defendant did not anticipate the precise manner of the result (broken by superseding factors)

Question 19

Is an act hastening an inevitable result still the legal cause of a result?

Answer 19

Yes

Question 20

What is the effect on legal cause where there are simultaneous acts of multiple persons?

Answer 20

they may be independently sufficient causes

Question 21

What is the effect of a victim’s preexisting weakness on causation?

Answer 21

No effect, even if unforeseeable

Question 22

What is the year and a day rule?

Answer 22

Traditional rule – largely abolished: for a defendant to be liable for homicide the death must occur with a year and a day from infliction of injury

Question 23

When does an intervening act shield the defendant from liability?

Answer 23

If it is a coincidence or outside the foreseeable sphere of risk created by the defendant

Foreseeable risks included negligent medical care and victim’s refusal of medical treatment

Question 24

What is the born alive rule?

Answer 24

Traditionally an infant had to be born alive to be the victim of a homicide, but most states have changed this

Question 25

What is false imprisonment?

Answer 25

Unlawful confinement of a person without valid consent

MPC requirement: confinement must interfere substantially with the victim’s liberty

Question 26

What is kidnapping?

Answer 26

Unlawful confinement of a person involving either some movement of the victim or concealment of the victim in a secret place

Question 27

What is aggravated kidnapping?

Answer 27

Kidnapping for ransom, for the purpose of committing other crimes, for offensive purposes, or kidnapping of a child (remember child incapable of giving valid consent)

Question 28

Under the common law requirement of an inherently dangerous felony for felony murder, what are the inherently dangerous felonies?

Answer 28

BARRK:
Burglary
Arson
Rape
Robbery
Kidnapping