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Question 0

If a woman you raped committed suicide because the guilt was too much, what is your guilt?

Answer 0

Felony murder

Question 1

If you aid or solicit another to commit suicide, what is your guilt?

Answer 1

You’re guilty if your conduct causes the suicide/attempted suicide

Question 2

If you provide a deadly instrument to someone who is foreseeably bent on suicide, what is your responsibility?

Answer 2

Negligent homicide or manslaughter

Question 3

What are the elements of murder?

Answer 3

• homicide

- malice

Question 4

After you discuss homicide and malice, what are the things you need to consider on an essay question?

Answer 4

Justification/excuse, mitigation, degree, involuntary manslaughter

Question 5

When dealing with a homicide, what are the things you need to prove?

Answer 5

Killing, of a human being, causation, malice

Question 6

Why is the killing part of a homicide not usually an issue?

Answer 6

Because you usually start with the dead body

Question 7

What is corpus delicti?

Answer 7

There must be evidence that proves a crime has been committed

Question 8

At common-law, what is the first thing you have to have in order to charge someone with murder?

Answer 8

A body

Question 9

When is it okay to show there was a homicide through circumstantial evidence, even without a body?

Answer 9

Only Modernly, not at common-law

Question 10

Why is the death of a human being so important in homicide?

Answer 10

Because a dead person cannot be killed

Question 11

Can a person that is dying/near death be killed?

Answer 11

Yes

Question 12

When does death occur?

Answer 12

• Modernly: when brain death occurs, and is determined by a total lack of responsibility to stimuli
• CL: when the heart stops

Question 13

When does life begin?

Answer 13

When a fetus is born out of its mother’s body and living

Question 14

On an exam, if the question has to do with the death of a fetus, or a baby born dead, what must you discuss?

Answer 14

What homicide means, what a human being is, and explanation of fetal murder statutes

Question 15

How does causation relate to homicide?

Answer 15

Must prove the death occurred by the D

Question 16

What must be established for causation for homicide?

Answer 16

Actual causation and proximate causation

Question 17

What are the two tests to prove actual causation for homicide?

Answer 17

• but-for test

- substantial factor test

Question 18

What is the but-for test for causation for homicide?

Answer 18

V wouldn’t have died absent the defendant’s act

Question 19

When is the substantial factor test applied for homicide?

Answer 19

Where there are multiple causes or responsible parties in addition to the defendant

Question 20

What is the substantial factor test for but-for causation for homicide?

Answer 20

Defendant’s act was a substantial factor in causing the killing

Question 21

In a situation where defendant shoots V in the head, and at the same time another person stabs him in the heart, how would causation be determined?

Answer 21

Can’t show that but-for the defendant’s act the victim wouldn’t have died but can show it was a substantial factor

Question 22

For situations where defendant’s act on its own is not enough to cause the death, but when joined with other factors does contribute to the death, what kind of causation would that be?

Answer 22

Still actual causation, through the substantial factor test

Question 23

If someone shoots a victim in her leg and while she’s getting her phone to call for help you knock her unconscious, then she bleeds to death, how is causation figured out?

Answer 23

Both of you are substantial factors that actually caused her death

Question 24

If a victim is already dying, but your actions bring her death more quickly, are you the actual cause?

Answer 24

Yes

Question 25

If you pull the plug on a patient that only has 24 hours to live, have you caused her death?

Answer 25

Yes

Question 26

If the victim is killed by some independent cause before your actions can kill her, are you the cause of the death?

Answer 26

No, because that is an independent intervening act

Question 27

If you push someone out of an airplane and just before they hit the ground someone shoots them in the head, who is the actual cause of death?

Answer 27

The shooter

Question 28

What is proximate causation for murder?

Answer 28

Link between the killing and the defendant's actions to establish legal responsibility

Question 29

What are the two things that need to be considered when you're discussing proximate cause?

Answer 29

Foreseeability, and superseding causes

Question 30

What are the two types of proximate cause?

Answer 30

- Direct cause | - Indirect cause

Question 31

What is a direct cause for proximate cause for murder?

Answer 31

The defendant's acts alone caused the killing, so he will be held proximately liable

Question 32

If the victim's death results from a special sensitivity/pre-existing condition, are you the proximate cause?

Answer 32

Yes because you take your victim as you find him, and you are still the cause regardless of whether you could've foreseen the situation

Question 33

What is indirect cause for proximate cause for homicide?

Answer 33

Another force that combines with the defendant's act to bring about the victim's death (aka intervening cause)

Question 34

What must happen to relieve the defendant of liability and break the chain of proximate causation?

Answer 34

Other forces must be superseding intervening causes

Question 35

Any instrumentality can be the cause of murder if the defendant does what?

Answer 35

Sets the events in motion that resulted in the death of the victim

Question 36

What are the two different types of indirect causes for proximate causation?

Answer 36

- Dependent | - Independent

Question 37

What is a dependent cause?

Answer 37

When the intervening force is a result of or response to the defendant's act

Question 38

If you injure someone that gets negligent medical treatment and they die, are you the proximate cause of that death?

Answer 38

Yes, because it is foreseeable that as a result of the injury, the victim will seek medical help

Question 39

What is a superseding dependent cause?

Answer 39

When a dependent intervening cause is a totally normal response to the defendant's act, it supersedes the defendant's act

Question 40

If you run over someone with your car and they have serious but not deadly injuries, and the doctor criminally negligently treats her, and she dies, where does causation lie?

Answer 40

With the doctor because that is totally abnormal and breaks the chain of causation

Question 41

What is an independent cause for proximate cause?

Answer 41

One that would have occurred regardless of the defendants act

Question 42

If you strike a victim with a hammer and he loses consciousness, and another person shoots and kills him, how would you classify the act?

Answer 42

It is independent because it would've happened regardless of your hammer blow

Question 43

Are pre-existing conditions considered intervening forces?

Answer 43

No

Question 44

If you have hemophilia and you bleed to death from a wound, does that make the defendant not the cause of death?

Answer 44

No

Question 45

If others fail to intervene, does that take the liability away from the defendent?

Answer 45

No

Question 46

What is a superseding independent cause?

Answer 46

Independent intervening causes that supersede the defendant's act, except when the force is foreseeable

Question 47

If you come home in a snowstorm and try to kill your wife, and she escapes and hides outside where she dies of exposure, was it foreseeable that she would die from being left outside?

Answer 47

Yes, so you were the cause of her death