CRIMINAL LAW

• Elements of a Crime

  • Actus Reus
  • Mens Rea
  • Concurrence
  • Causation
• Actus Reus

  A voluntary affirmative act or a failure to act when a legal duty exists
• When a legal duty exists

  • A statute or law requires action
  • The relationship between the defendant and the victim imposes a duty on the defendant
  • A contract obligates the defendant to act
  • The defendant voluntarily assumes a duty and excludes others from helping
  • The defendant created the risk of harm, whether or not the defendant was at fault
• Mens Rea

  A required mental state of mind
• Common Law Mens Rea

  • General Intent: crimes that require the intent to commit the actus reus, but not the result
  • Specific Intent: crimes that require a specific state of mind related to the resulting crime
• Model Penal Code Mens Rea

  • Purposely: the defendant's conscious or primary objective was to cause the relevant harm
  • Knowledge: the defendant was practically certain that the harm would result
  • Willful Blindness: the mental state for knowledge is satisfied if the defendant was reckless and took deliberate steps to avoid learning the truth
  • Recklessness: the defendant was aware of a substantial and unjustified risk that the harm would occur; the risk must be significant and not warranted under the circumstances
  • Negligence: the defendant's failure to perceive a substantial and unjustified risk that the harm would occur was a substantial deviation from the standard of care
• Transferred Intent

  Under CL and the MPC, a defendant's intentional mens rea can transfer to an unintended victim if the defendant's actus reus resulted in the same or similar crime as the intended crime; transferred intent only applies to completed crimes, not attempted crimes
• Strict Liability

  Crimes that require no mens rea
• Vicarious Liability

  A defendant can be responsible for the actions of another under the theories of conspiracy liability, accomplice liability, and felony murder
• Concurrence

  The defendant must have the required mens rea at the time the defendant acts
• Causation

  For completed crimes, the defendant's act must be the actual and proximate cause of the victim's harm; this is not required for inchoate offenses
• Causation

  • Actual Cause: the defendant's act must be the but-for cause of the harm or be a substantial factor in producing the harm
  • Proximate Cause: the harm was the direct and natural result of the defendant's actus reus
• Intervening Events

  If an event occurs between the defendant's act and the eventual harm, the event becomes a superseding cause that breaks the causal chain if the event was not foreseeable (e.g., acts of nature, crimes, or intentional torts by third parties)
• Common Law Murder

  An unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought, which is satisfied if the defendant has one of the four mental states: (1) intent to kill, (2) intent to inflict serious bodily harm, (3) extreme recklessness (depraved heart murder), or (4) felony murder
• Intent to Kill

  Requires the defendant (1) to have the conscious objective or purpose to cause death or (2) be substantially certain the death would result
• Extreme Recklessness

  Requires the defendant to (1) be consciously aware of a substantial (i.e., poses a significant risk of death) and unjustified risk (i.e., there is no good reason to engage in it) that the death will result from the defendant's actions, and (2) engage in behavior that exhibits a complete lack of care for human life
• Requirements for Felony Murder

  • The homicide occurs during the commission or attempted commission of a felony
  • The defendant possesses the mens rea necessary for the underlying felony
  • The underlying felony must be inherently dangerous (i.e., pose a danger to human life)
  • The underlying felony must be independent from the homicide
  • The death must be foreseeable under either the agency approach or proximate cause approach
• Inherently Dangerous Felony (Common Law)

  Burglary, arson, rape, robbery, and kidnapping
• Agency Approach (Felony Murder)

  Includes homicides committed or caused by the defendant or an accomplice, but not killings by officers, victims, or bystanders
• Proximate Cause Approach (Felony Murder)

  Includes any homicide that is a natural or proximate result of a commission of the felony
• First-Degree Murder

  • An intentional killing with premeditation and deliberation
• Premeditation

  The defendant planned the killing in advance
• Deliberation

  The defendant carefully considered how they would commit the crime and was in a clear state of mind when making the decision to proceed
• Second-Degree Murder

  • An intentional killing without premeditation or deliberation
  • An unintentional killing in which the defendant had intended to inflict serious or great bodily harm
  • Depraved heart murder
• Voluntary Manslaughter

  • A killing done in the heat of passion
  • A killing resulting from an imperfect use of self-defense
• Requirements for Heat of Passion

  • The defendant must be severely provoked or angered by the victim at the time of the killing
  • A reasonable person in that same situation would have also been severely provoked or angered by the victim's conduct
  • The killing occurred before a reasonable person would have cooled off from the provocation
• Imperfect Self-Defense

  Occurs when either (1) the defendant feared imminent harm, but that fear was not reasonable; or (2) the defendant's use of deadly force to prevent the harm was disproportionate
• Involuntary Manslaughter

  • An unintentional killing that occurs when the defendant recklessly or negligently causes the death
  • An unintentional killing that occurs during the commission of an unlawful act that does not qualify as an inherently dangerous felony (misdemeanor manslaughter)
• Recklessness (Involuntary Manslaughter)

  The defendant is actually aware of a substantial and unjustified risk of death
• Negligence (Involuntary Manslaughter)

  The defendant should have been aware of the substantial and unjustified risk of death
• MPC Homicide

  • Murder: includes (1) all intentional killings, regardless of whether they were committed with premeditation and deliberation; and (2) killings done with extreme indifference, which include unintentional killings that occur during the commission of a felony and killings that resulted from an intent to commit serious bodily harm
  • Manslaughter: includes (1) killings done with recklessness and (2) killings under extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is a reasonable justification or excuse
  • Negligent Homicide: a killing done with criminal negligence
• Insanity Defense

  • M'Naghten: (1) the defendant did not know the nature and quality of his actions, or (2) he did not know that what he was doing was wrong
  • Irresistible Impulse Test: the defendant was (1) unable to control his conduct or (2) unable to conform his conduct to the law
  • Model Penal Code: the defendant lacked substantial capacity to (1) appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or (2) conform his conduct to the requirements of the law
  • Durham Rule: the defendant committed the crime (e.g., the conduct must be a product of the disease/defect)
• Intoxication

  • Involuntary intoxication is a defense, but voluntary intoxication is often not a defense
• Involuntary Intoxication

  Applies if the defendant was unwittingly drugged or otherwise intoxicated against the defendant's will where the effect was powerful enough to defeat the mens rea requirement
• Voluntary Intoxication

  Does not apply if the required mens rea was formed before intoxication
• Self-Defense Requirements

  • The defendant (a) must not be the initial aggressor or (b) must have regained the right to use self-defense
  • The defendant must (a) honestly and (b) reasonably believe that the defendant faces an (c) imminent threat of unlawful bodily contact
  • The defendant must (a) honestly and (b) reasonably believe that the force used is reasonably necessary to prevent the threatened harm
• Duty to Retreat (Deadly Force)

  In a minority of jurisdictions, if deadly force is used, the defendant must retreat if the defendant can do so safely. However, in most jurisdictions, if deadly force is used, there is no duty to retreat if the defendant was lawfully standing in a place where the defendant had the right to be
• Duty to Retreat (Nondeadly Force/Castle Doctrine)

  In all jurisdictions, there is no duty to retreat if nondeadly force is used or the defendant was in the defendant's home or workplace
• Defense of Others

  Applies if the defendant (1) honestly and (2) reasonably believed (3) there was an imminent threat of unlawful bodily contact to another person and that the force used was necessary to prevent the threatened harm
• Defense of Property

  Applies if the defendant (1) honestly and (2) reasonably believed there was an (3) imminent threat of unlawful intrusion or interference, and (4) the force used to prevent the harm was reasonable