Themis Crim Flashcards
Actus Reus
reus—(i) a voluntary, affirmative act, or (ii) an omission (failure to act), causing a
criminally proscribed result
- Voluntary act
* Physical and voluntary
* Unconscious/asleep/under hypnosis—not voluntary - Failure to act when a duty exists
* Imposed by statute (e.g., the obligation to file a tax return)
* Contract (e.g., a lifeguard saving a drowning person)
* Special relationship (e.g., a parent’s duty to her child or the duty to one’s spouse)
* Detrimental undertaking (e.g., leaving a victim in worse condition after treatment)
* Causation (e.g., failing to aid after causing a victim’s peril)
Mens Rea
guilty mind or legally proscribed mental state (no mens rea for strict-liability
crimes)
- Specific Intent Crimes
- Malice Crimes
- General-intent crimes
- MPC
- Strict-liability crimes
- Various Liability
- Causation
- Mistakes as a defense
Specific-intent Crimes
crimes—the defendant (D) has a subjective desire, specific objective,
or knowledge to accomplish prohibited result (FIAT):
* First-degree murder
* Inchoate offenses
* Assault with intent to commit battery
* Theft offenses
Malice Crimes
(CL murder, arson)
* Reckless disregard of a high risk of harm
* Does not require D to act with ill will toward victim
General-intent crimes
(e.g., battery, rape, kidnapping, and false imprisonment)
* Require the intent to perform an unlawful act
* Intent—purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently
Transferred intent
o When D acts with intent to cause harm to one person or object and that act directly
results in harm to another person or object
o Applies only to “bad aim” cases (not mistaken identity)
o Usually confined to homicide, battery, and arson
o Not for attempted crimes (only completed crimes)
o MPC—transferred intent not specifically recognized, but liability is recognized when
purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently causing a particular result is an
element of an offense.
MPC mens rea
Purposely—D’s conscious objective is to engage in the conduct or to cause a certain
result
- Knowingly/willfully—D is aware or knows that the result is practically certain to occur
based on the conduct - Recklessly—D acts with a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk
Negligently—D should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a material
element of a crime exists or will result from the conduct (i.e., a gross deviation from the
standard of care)
Strict-Liability Crimes
(e.g., statutory rape, bigamy, regulation of food and drugs)
* No mens rea; proof of the actus reus is sufficient for conviction
* Generally disfavored; there must be clear legislative intent to dispense with the mens
rea
Vicarious Liability
- No actus reus by D; imposes criminal liability on D for the actus reus of a third party
- Generally limited to regulatory crimes; punishment generally limited to fines
- Corporations—may be vicariously liable when the act is performed by a high-ranking
corporate agent who likely represents corporate policy
Causation
Causation—D’s conduct must cause the particular result or circumstance
Mistake as a defense
may negate criminal intent if an “honest mistake”
- Mistake of fact
o CL—a defense to specific-intent crimes, even if unreasonable; a defense to general-
intent or malice crimes, only if reasonable
o MPC—serves as a defense if it prevents prosecution from establishing the required
state of mind for a material element of a crime
o Strict liability—no defense
- Mistake of law—not valid under CL; only valid under MPC if:
o An honestly held mistake of law negates required intent or mental state
o D relied on court decision/administrative order or official interpretation
o Statutory definition of malum prohibitum crime not available before conduct
Parties to crime
principal
accomplice
accessor after the fact
Principal
Principal—the person whose acts or omissions are the actus reus of the crime; must be
actually or constructively present at the scene of the crime
Accomplice liability
- Accomplice—a person who, with the requisite mens rea, aids or abets a principal prior to or during the commission of the crime
- Principal in the second degree–an accomplice who is physically or constructively
present during the commission of the crime - Accessory before the fact—an accomplice who is neither physically nor
constructively present during the commission of the crime, but who possesses the requisite intent - Responsible for the crime and all other crimes that are the natural and probable
consequences of the accomplice’s conduct - To withdraw, an accomplice must:
o Repudiate prior aid,
o Do all that is possible to countermand prior assistance, and
o Do so before the chain of events is in motion and unstoppable.
Accessory after the fact
- Aids or assists a felon to avoid apprehension or conviction after commission of the felony
- Must know that a felony was committed
- Only liable for a separate crime (e.g., “obstruction of justice” or “harboring a fugitive”)
Insanity
- M’Naghten—D did not know either (i) the nature and quality of the act, or (ii) the
wrongfulness of the act, because of a defect of reason due to mental disease (“right
from wrong” test) - Irresistible impulse—D lacked capacity for self-control and free choice due to mental
disease or defect (inability to conform conduct to the law) - Durham—the unlawful act was the product of D’s mental disease or defect (“but for”
test) - MPC (combines M’Naghten and irresistible impulse)—at the time of the conduct, D
lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the act or to conform his
conduct to law, as a result of mental disease or defect
Intoxication
- Voluntary
o Intentional taking of a substance known to be intoxicating
o Need not intend actual intoxication
o A defense to SI crimes if it prevents the formation of the required intent
o MPC—a defense to crimes with a mental state that is “purposely” or “knowingly” and
the intoxication prevents the formation of that mental state - Involuntary
o Taken without knowledge of the intoxicating nature, or under duress
o A defense when intoxication negates an element of a general-intent, specific-intent,
or malice crime; may be a defense to a strict-liability crime by negating the voluntary
act
Murder
the unlawful killing of another living human being with malice aforethought
- Malice—can be shown by any one of the following:
* Intent to kill—conduct that is the legal cause of death + intent to kill
* Intent to do serious bodily injury—intent to do serious bodily injury + unintentional
killing
* Reckless indifference to human life—results from reckless indifference to an
unjustifiably high risk to human life + unintentional killing (“depraved heart”)
* Intent to commit a felony—proximately caused by and during the commission or
attempted commission of an inherently dangerous felony + unintentional killing (felony
murder)
Felony Murder Rule
- Unintended and foreseeable killing proximately caused by and during the commission
or attempted commission of an inherently dangerous felony
Most common: BARRK—burglary, arson, robbery, rape, and kidnapping - The prosecution must establish the underlying felony and that D committed that felony
- Agency theory (majority position)—D is not liable for a bystander’s death caused by a
felony victim or police officer - Proximate cause theory (minority position)—a bystander’s death falls under FMR
because the death is a direct consequence of the felony - D is not liable for a co-felon’s death by a victim or police officer
- Does not encompass death occurring after flight from the scene of the crime
Statutory Murder
- First-degree
* Deliberate and premeditated murder; or
o After forming the intent to kill, D had time for reflection
o Specific-intent crime (specific-intent defenses are available to D)
* Felony murder - Second-degree (malice crime)—committed with the necessary malicious intent (common-
law murder), or the default category if not first-degree murder
Voluntary manslaughter
homicide committed with malice aforethought, but also with
mitigating circumstances
1. “Heat of passion”
* Murder committed in response to a situation that could inflame a reasonable person
(e.g., serious battery, threat of deadly force, but usually not mere words)
* NOT a defense, but it reduces murder to voluntary manslaughter
* If there was sufficient time between the provocation and the killing for a reasonable
person to cool down, then murder is not mitigated to manslaughter
* Transferred provocation applies if D misidentified her provoker or accidentally kills the
wrong person
2. Imperfect defense
* Many states reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter if D started the altercation or
unreasonably believed in the necessity of using deadly force
Involuntary manslaughter
an unintentional homicide committed with criminal negligence or
during an unlawful act
1. Criminal negligence—grossly negligent action (or inaction when there is a duty to act) that
puts another person at a significant risk of serious injury or death
2. Unlawful act—a killing committed during the commission of:
* A malum in se misdemeanor (e.g., assault, battery), or
* A felony that is not treated as first-degree felony murder or second-degree murder
