Page 5 Flashcards
What are the two questions you should always ask when dealing with proximate cause?
- Was the harm foreseeable?
2. Were there intervening acts?
If you drive 90 km/h in a 50 km/hour zone and your passenger has a heart attack, are you proximate cause of his death?
Unless you should have reasonably foreseen that your culpably negligent driving would cause a heart attack, you shouldn’t be guilty of manslaughter
What is the substantial factor test?
If two people inflict mortal wounds on a victim and either is enough to kill him, it must be asked whether the defendant’s conduct was a substantial factor in bringing about the result
If there are multiple assailants that aren’t working together, how does guilt work?
Each are as guilty as the other
If you hasten someone’s death, what does that mean for liability?
You are the cause of death
If you prematurely pull the plug on a terminally ill patient, how does that affect your liability?
You were the cause of death
If April goes on a desert trek and you poison her water, but Bo steals the water and April dies of thirst, who is the cause of death?
Bo, because he was the actual cause
If there is a small difference between what you meant to happen and what actually happened, are you still the direct cause?
Yes
What is an intervening cause?
When your intended result is achieved in an unintended way because of an intervening act
If there is a coincidence that wasn’t foreseeable as an intervening cause, are you liable?
No
If there is a response to your actions that is an intervening cause, are you liable?
Yes
If there is no evidence that your act caused or accelerated the victim’s death, are you liable?
No
What is a superseding intervening act?
An intervening act that breaks the chain of causation
If an act is foreseeable, will it be superseding?
No
If an act is unforeseeable, will it break the chain of causation?
Probably
What is a dependent intervening act?
Intervening act that doesn’t break the chain of causation
What are the four different intervening cause categories?
A. Victim
B. Third person
C. Defendant
D. Nonhuman source
How can a victim be an intervening cause?
If the victim in someway contributes to his own death after the defendant’s attack
What are the ways a victim can contribute to his own death?
- trying to escape
- impulsively acting to avoid harm
- acting voluntarily to refuse treatment
- committing suicide
If the victim contributes to his own death, how does that affect the guilt of the defendant?
Usually means the defendant is still guilty
How can a third person be an intervening cause?
- negligent treatment by a doctor
- another defendant coming along and also harming the victim
If a doctor negligently treats a wound, does that make him the proximate cause of death?
Only if the negligence was gross negligence, because ordinary negligence is not abnormal and doesn’t cut off liability
If you shoot someone and leave them to die, and another stabs them and hastens the death, that person is guilty of murder. Are you?
Yes because at the time of death both wounds were contributing to the life shortening process, or your intent to kill that person made him unable to defend himself against the other, so you proximately caused the death
How can the defendant be an intervening cause?
If the defendant thought he killed the victim, but didn’t, and actually killed him while trying to dispose of the body
How can a nonhuman source be an intervening cause?
If the defendant intends to kill someone, but just wounds them and leaves them somewhere that nonhuman sources finish him off
What are some examples of nonhuman sources that could be intervening causes?
- being kicked by a horse
- struck by lightning
- exposure to the elements
How is a D still liable if the victim is killed by a nonhuman source?
As long as the nonhuman source is foreseeable, the defendant is liable
Do acts of nature usually break the chain of causation?
No, but unforeseeable freak acts of nature often do. Ie: earthquakes
If you contract a disease during treatment, does that break the chain?
Not usually unless the disease is very rare and totally unforeseeable
How does the MPC deal with proximate cause?
When the defendant’s conduct brings about an unintended result, the question is put to the jury about whether the result is too remote or accidental to have a just bearing on the actor’s liability
How does the MPC deal with proximate cause for situations that there’s a difference between the result imagined and the actual result?
If the but-for test can be applied, the conduct is the cause of the result
What is the status prohibition?
Defendant cannot be charged for a state of being, rather than what he has done. Ie: being a vagrant, prostitute, drunk, etc.
What are inchoate crimes?
Planning crimes that are punished before the harm occurs
What is the proper order of inchoate crimes?
- Solicitation
- Conspiracy
- Attempt
If on an exam there is no evidence about which defendant came up with the idea to commit a crime, how should that be dealt with?
Skip solicitation and just discuss conspiracy
What is solicitation?
Minor crime when someone asks someone else to commit a crime with the specific intent that the crime be committed
What are some examples of solicitation?
Enticing, advising, inciting, ordering, encouraging
On an exam how should you always discuss solicitation?
Identify it with the crime committed. Ie: solicitation to commit murder
What are the elements of solicitation?
- D urged another person to commit some act
- The act urged would have been a crime if it was committed
When is solicitation complete?
When the command/request is made
Does a solicitation have to be personal?
No, it can be to a large group of people
Is bare solicitation considered an attempt?
No because completion requires action by the person solicited
The solicitor is guilty of solicitation until the crime is completed, and then he becomes what?
An accessory before the fact to the substantive offense
How can attempted solicitation happen?
If the solicitor mails an inciting letter that is never received
