Criminal Law Essentials

87 flashcards by MentisLibrary

Elements, mental states, and defenses, with the common law rule and the Model Penal Code approach on the same card. Homicide grading, theft crimes, inchoate offenses, and the excuses and justifications that defeat them.

What two components must every crime have?
An actus reus, a voluntary act or a qualifying omission, and a mens rea, the required mental state, concurring in time
What is the actus reus requirement?
A voluntary bodily movement, or an omission where a legal duty to act existed and the defendant could have performed it
When does failing to act create criminal liability?
When a duty arises by statute, contract, status relationship, voluntary assumption of care that isolates the victim, or the defendant's creation of the peril
What are the four Model Penal Code mental states, from most to least culpable?
Purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently
What is the difference between purposely and knowingly under the MPC?
Purposely means it is the defendant's conscious object to cause the result; knowingly means the defendant is practically certain the result will occur
What is recklessness under the MPC?
Consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk, a gross deviation from the standard of a law-abiding person
What is criminal negligence?
Failing to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk when the failure is a gross deviation from the standard of care of a reasonable person
What is the difference between specific intent and general intent?
Specific intent requires intent to bring about a further result beyond the act; general intent requires only intent to perform the prohibited act
Which common law crimes are specific intent crimes?
Solicitation, conspiracy, attempt, first-degree murder, assault as attempted battery, larceny, robbery, burglary, forgery, false pretenses, and embezzlement
What is malice in the common law sense?
Reckless disregard of an obvious or high risk, which does not require ill will or spite
What is transferred intent in criminal law?
Where a defendant intends to harm one person but harms another, the intent transfers to the actual victim
What is a strict liability offense?
One requiring no mens rea as to at least one material element, typically a public welfare, regulatory, or statutory rape offense
What is the willful blindness or ostrich doctrine?
A defendant who deliberately avoids confirming a high probability of a fact is treated as having knowledge of it
When is a mistake of fact a defense?
When it negates the mental state required for a material element; for specific intent crimes even an unreasonable mistake works, for general intent it must be reasonable
When is a mistake of law a defense?
Rarely: when it negates a specific intent element, when the defendant reasonably relied on an official statement of law later held invalid, or when the law was not published or reasonably made available
What is the year-and-a-day rule?
The common law rule that a death occurring more than a year and a day after the act was not homicide; nearly all modern jurisdictions have abolished it
What is common law murder?
The unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought
What is depraved heart murder?
A killing caused by reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life
What is the felony murder rule?
A killing during the commission or attempted commission of an inherently dangerous felony is murder, without proof of an intent to kill
What is the agency theory of felony murder?
The felon is liable only for killings committed by a co-felon or agent, not for killings by a victim or police officer resisting the crime
What distinguishes first-degree from second-degree murder?
First-degree murder usually requires premeditation and deliberation, or a statutorily listed method or predicate felony; all other murder is second degree
What is voluntary manslaughter?
An intentional killing committed in the heat of passion upon adequate provocation, without a reasonable cooling-off period, mitigating what would otherwise be murder
What is the MPC substitute for heat of passion?
Extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is a reasonable explanation or excuse, judged from the actor's situation under the circumstances as the actor believed them
What is involuntary manslaughter?
An unintentional killing caused by criminal negligence or recklessness, or during the commission of an unlawful act that is not a felony triggering felony murder
What are the elements of common law larceny?
Trespassory taking and carrying away of the personal property of another with intent to permanently deprive at the time of the taking
How does embezzlement differ from larceny?
In embezzlement the defendant already has lawful possession and then fraudulently converts the property; in larceny the taking itself is trespassory
How does false pretenses differ from larceny by trick?
False pretenses obtains title through a knowingly false representation of material fact; larceny by trick obtains only possession
What are the elements of robbery?
Larceny from the person or presence of the victim, accomplished by force or by threat of imminent harm
What are the elements of common law burglary?
Breaking and entering the dwelling of another at night with the intent to commit a felony inside
What are the elements of common law arson?
The malicious burning of the dwelling of another