Voluntary Acts and Omissions Flashcards
Chain smoker lights a cigarette at a gas station. He has no memory of lighting the cigarette. Pump explodes.
Is his act voluntary?
- Yes - habitual action is a voluntary act
- Habitual action = very specific response to the same set of specific stimuli
Police officers arrested man drunk in his home, took him to the highway, arrested him for being drunk in public
- Martin v. State
- Action must be voluntary
- Cannot be culpable for action you did not voluntarily perform
- Taking a person from their home to a public place means they were not voluntarily drunk in public
D let friend and 10-month-old baby stay with her. Baby died from lack of food and medical care. Did D have duty to provide food and care? Case?
- Jones v. US
- No legal duty to act
- No contract to care for the child
- No statutory duty
- Did not create peril
- No traditional relationship (not the parent)
- Did not take responsibility for the child then isolate her from her mother
- Taking someone into your home to help them does not create a duty to act
- Policy: Encouraging people to help each other
D was involved in struggle with police - was shot in stomach then shot and killed police officer. Expert testified he would have been unconscious after being shot in the stomach.
- People v. Newton
- Unconsciousness is a complete defense to homicide
- Act must be voluntary - any act performed while unconscious is involuntary
MPC Requirement of Voluntary Act
A person is not guilty of an offense unless his liability is based on conduct that includes a voluntary act or the omission to perform an act of that he is physically capable.
MPC - What acts are involuntary?
The following are not voluntary acts within the meaning of this section:
- reflex or convulsion;
- bodily movement during unconsciousness or sleep;
- conduct during hypnosis or resulting from hypnotic suggestion;
- a bodily movement that otherwise is not a product of the effort or determination of the actor, either conscious or habitual.
Did Johnny commit a voluntary act?
- Johnny served for 20 years as a navy seal. Highly trained in close combat techniques.
- He was chopping celery in his kitchen when his sixteen year old son walked up behind him and hugged him from behind.
- Johnny responded, as he had been trained, by breaking his son’s hold and stabbing him with the knife.
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YES - conditioned responses are voluntary acts
- Is a product of effort or determination by the actor
In what situations is there a duty to act / what creates a duty to act?
- By Statute
- By Contract
- By Relationship
- By Creating Peril
- By Taking Responsibility and Isolating
Must reasonably assist without causing danger to yourself
Woman dreamed soldiers were attacking her daughter, sleep-walked into daughter’s room and killed her while asleep
- The Cogdon Case
- Somnambulism / sleep-walking
- Any act while sleep walking is not a voluntary act
- Woman not liable for killing her daughter because it was not a voluntary act
D drove his car on the highway, had an epileptic seizure and crashed, killing another driver. Voluntary act? Which case?
- People v. Decina
- Was a voluntary act to choose to drive knowing he was epileptic - D was found liable
- Expanded the scope of when the voluntary act occured
- Seizure that caused crash not voluntary but choice to be on the road was
Relationships that create legal duty to act
- Common law:
- Parent to minor
- Husband to wife / wife to husband
- Modern trend toward relationships that look like these eg. gay marriage
D took in mother and her child, mother beat the child in front of D and D did nothing to stop the beating, or call for medical help or police. Child died that night. Did D have duty to act? Case?
- Pope v. State
- No legal duty to act
- No contract, relationship, creation of peril or taking responsibility and isolating
- Statute created duty if D was responsible for the supervision of the child
- Mother was always present, D did not usurp role of parent by letting mother and child stay in her house
D was having an affair. Mistress overdosed and D failed to call for medical help. Duty to act? Case?
- People v. Beardsley
- No legal duty to act
- No contract, statute, creation or peril or taking resp./isolating
- Relationship not one recognized as creating a duty at common law - not husband and wife
Stepmother did not prevent her husband from killing his daughter during a week she was staying with them
- People v. Carroll
- Beginning to expand the traditional legal relationship that creates duty
- Stepmother had duty to act
- Parent with functional equivalent of a parent in familial or household setting is legally responsible for child’s care
- Takes into account modern-day reality that parenting functions not always done by parent
D, live in BF, failed to protect a baby from being beaten by its mother, his GF. D had taken care of baby and considered himself its stepfather.
- State v. Miranda
- Overturned on appeal finding NO legal duty to act
- Parental liability should not be extended on case-by-case basis beyond traditional categories
- Will discourage people from becoming too involved with children for fear of being held criminally liable
- This case is stupid as shit
D’s husband abused her daughter (his stepdaughter). Daughter told D about the assaults then ran away. D took no steps to protect daughter. Testified she was afraid of husband - duty to act to protect daughter in light of abusive husband?
- Commonwealth v. Cardwell
- D had duty to protect her daughter - even though she had limited option because of her abusive husband, she had to do something to try protect her daughter
Negligently pushing someone in water v. intentionally watching them die
Why creation of peril matters
- Jones v. State
- Creation of peril matters because initial volantary act may be just negligent (IM) while post risk creation and ommission could become reckless/ knowing ( Depraved heart/2nd degree).
