Criminal Law

Front 1

Jurisdiction

Back 1

State acquires jurisdiction to adjudicate the crime if that state is the legal situs of the crime

1) Conduct happened there

2) Result happened there

- Crimes of omission – jurisdiction lies where the act should have been performed

Front 2

Merger

Back 2

1) Generally, there is no merger of crimes in American law

2) BUT solicitation and attempt merge into the substantive offense

- i.e. you cannot be charged for both attempting a crime, and that crime

3) Conspiracy does not merge with the substantive offense

- i.e. you can be charged with conspiracy to rob and robbery

- Never merge any crimes that have different victims

Front 3

Physical Act

Back 3

An act can be any bodily movement

These acts do not qualify for criminal liability:

1) Conduct which is not the product of your own volition
- Ex. being pushed

2) Reflexive or convulsive act
- Ex. seizure

3) Act performed while unconscious or asleep
- Ex. sleepwalking

Omission as an “act” (legal duty to act)

Front 4

Legal duty to act (five circumstances)

Back 4

1) Statute

2) Contract

3) Relationship between the parties

- Parent – have a duty to protect child

- Spouse – have a duty to protect each other

4) Voluntary assumption of care; failing to adequately perform

5) Conduct created the peril

Front 5

Mental State

Back 5

1)Specific Intent

2)Malice

3)General Intent

4)Strict Liability

Front 6

Specific Intent

Back 6

Qualifies for additional defenses not available for other kinds of crime
- Voluntary intoxication, any mistake of fact

Specific Intent Crimes:

1) Inchoate offenses
- Solicitation
- Conspiracy
- Attempt

2) First Degree Murder (not “murder”)

3) Assault (as attempted battery)

4) Felonies Against Property
- Larceny
- Embezzlement
- False pretenses
- Robbery
- Burglary
- Forgery

Front 7

Malice

Back 7

Murder and Arson

- “Murder” by itself means common law murder, aka second degree murder

Front 8

General Intent

Back 8

Catch-all category (if crime does not fall into any other category)
- Ex. rape and battery

Front 9

Strict Liability

Back 9

1) If the crime is in the administrative, regulatory or morality area

- Will not see adverbs (“knowingly”, “willfully”, “intentionally”)

2) No intent crimes – any defense that negates intention can’t be a defense to strict liability

- Ex. mistake of fact – because mistake of fact is only a defense if it negates intention

Front 10

Transferred Intent

Back 10

1) Where defendant intends the harm that is actually caused, but to a different victim or object

2) There is usually two crimes (never merge any crimes that have different victims)

- Completed crime against the actual victim

- Attempt against the intended victim

Front 11

Accomplice Liability

Back 11

Accomplices are liable for the crime itself and all other foreseeable crimes

- Never give anyone accomplice liability just because they are present during the crime.

- Accomplice must be actively in on the crime

Front 12

Inchoate Offenses

Back 12

1) Solicitation

2) Conspiracy

3) Attempt

- Specific Intent crimes

Front 13

Solicitation

Back 13

- Inchoate Offense

- Specific Intent

Asking someone to commit a crime
- Crime ends when you ask them

What if they agree to do it?
- It becomes a conspiracy and solicitation merges

Front 14

Conspiracy (overview)

Back 14

- Inchoate offense
- Specific Intent

- Elements:

1)An agreement

2)Intent to agree

3)An intent to pursue the UNLAWFUL OBJECTIVE

Front 15

Liability (Conspiracy)

Back 15

Each conspirator is liable for all the crimes of co-conspirators if those crimes were:

1) Committed in furtherance of the conspiracy

2) Foreseeable

Front 16

Agreement (Conspiracy)

Back 16

The agreement does not have to be express

- No written or spoken words of agreement are needed

- Various people can be in a conspiracy even if they don’t know each other

Front 17

Overt Act (Conspiracy)

Back 17

1) Majority rule – in order to ground liability for conspiracy, there must be an agreement plus an overt act (beyond the agreement itself, in furtherance of the conspiracy)

- Any act will do (Ex. showing up at the place you agreed to rob; making a telephone call to recruit others)

2) Minority/Common Law Rule – ground liability for conspiracy with the agreement itself

Front 18

Defenses (Conspiracy)

Back 18

1) Impossibility is no defense to conspiracy

2) Withdrawal

- Even if it is adequate, can never withdraw the defendant from liability for the conspiracy itself

- Defendant can withdraw from liability for the other conspirators’ subsequent crimes

Front 19

Consent of the victim

Back 19

Is rarely a colorable defense

Front 20

Attempt

Back 20

- Inchoate Offense

- Specific Attempt

Attempt = specific intent + substantial step beyond mere preparation (in the direction of the commission of the crime)

- Mere preparation for crime cannot ground liability for attempt

Front 21

Insanity

Back 21

Defense to all crimes, including the strict liability crimes

1) M’Naghten Rule: At the time of his conduct defendant lacked the ability to know the wrongfulness of his actions OR to understand the nature and quality of his action

2) Irresistible Impulse: Defendant lacked the capacity for self control and free choice

3) Durham Rule: Defendant’s conduct was a product of a mental illness

4) Model Penal Code: Defendant lacked ability to conform his conduct to the requirements of law

Front 22

Intoxication

Back 22

1) Voluntary
- Self-induced intoxication (includes addicts and alcoholics)
- Defense only to specific intent crimes

2) Involuntary – a form of insanity
- Without knowledge or under duress
- Defense to all crimes, including the strict liability crimes

Front 23

Infancy

Back 23

1) Under 7, no criminal liability

2) Under 14, rebuttable presumption of no criminal liability

On Test: almost every infancy answer is wrong

Front 24

Self-Defense (general)

Back 24

1) Nondeadly Force
- A victim may use nondeadly force in self-defense any time that victim reasonably believes that force is about to be used on them

2) Deadly Force

- Majority rule – allows a victim to use deadly force in self-defense any time that victim reasonably believes that deadly force is about to be used on them

- Minority rule – requires a victim, before using deadly force, to retreat if it is safe to do so

- Exception to retreat
1) You are in your home
2) Victim of a rape or robbery
3) Police officers

Front 25

Capacity Defenses

Back 25

1) Insanity

2) Intoxication

3) Infancy

Front 26

Justifications

Back 26

1) Self-Defense

2) Duress

3) Consent

4) Entrapment

5) Mistake of Fact

Front 27

Self-Defense by Original Aggressor

Back 27

Only if the original aggressor both:

1) Withdraws

2) Communicates withdrawal to original victim

Front 28

Defense of a Dwelling

Back 28

Deadly force may never be used solely to defend property

On Test: spring guns

Front 29

Duress

Back 29

Defendant reasonably believed that someone would imminently inflict death or great bodily harm if he did not commit the crime

Defense to all crimes except homicide

Front 30

Mistake of Fact

Back 30

Only a defense when it negates intent

1) Specific Intent: Any mistake, reasonable or unreasonable

2) Malice and General Intent: Reasonable mistake only

3) Strict Liability: Never a defense

Front 31

Battery

Back 31

Completed assault

General intent, never strict liability

Front 32

Assault

Back 32

1) Attempted battery
- specific intent
- Ex. attempt to hit someone and they move

2) Threat
– general intent
- Ex. Threaten with bodily injury

Front 33

Murder (Four Types)

Back 33

1) Intent to kill

2) Intent to inflict serious bodily harm

3) Highly reckless, depraved heart (substantial likelihood)

4) Felony murder

Front 34

Limitations on Felony Murder

Back 34

1) Defendant must be guilty of underlying felony
- If the defendant has a defense to underlying felony, he has a defense to felony murder

2) Felony must be independent of killing

3) Death must be foreseeable

4) Death must occur before the felony is over
- Deaths caused while fleeing from a felony are felony murder
- Once the defendant reaches a place of temporary safety, deaths caused thereafter are not felony murder

5) Defendant is not liable for the death of a co-felon
- Resistance by victim or police (if victim accidentally kills innocent bystander when attempting to kill felons, liable)

Front 35

Manslaughter

Back 35

1) Voluntary
- Provoked killing
- Never use label “voluntary” unless there is passion

2) Involuntary
- Killings from criminal negligence
- Ex. falling asleep while driving car

3) Misdemeanor manslaughter
– Killing someone while you are committing a misdemeanor or an unenumerated felony (not in felony murder statute)

Front 36

Entrapment

Back 36

Elements:

1) Criminal plan originated with law enforcement

2) Defendant was not predisposed

- Almost never available because predisposition negates entrapment

Front 37

First Degree Murder

Back 37

Statutory Modification of Common Law

On Test: It will be labeled “first degree murder”

- Set of statutes that define first degree murder

Front 38

Rape

Back 38

The slightest penetration completes the crime of rape

Front 39

Statutory Rape

Back 39

Strict liability

Consent is no defense

Front 40

Property Offenses

Back 40

1) Larceny

2) Embezzlement

3) False Pretenses

4) Robbery

5) Extortion

Front 41

Larceny

Back 41

Specific intent

Elements:

1) Wrongful taking of the personal property of another

2) Carrying away (asportation)

3) Without consent
- Consent gained by fear or fraud is not valid

4) Intent to deprive owner permanently of his interest in the property
- Intent must exist at the time of the taking

Not larceny: Taking property in the belief that it is yours or that you have some right to it (any mistake, reasonable or unreasonable)

Front 42

Embezzlement

Back 42

1) Lawful possession
- Ex. trustee

2) Illegal conversion
- Does not require carrying away or defendant benefiting

Possession only, not title

Front 43

False pretenses

Back 43

1) Conveyance of title

2) By false statement as to a present or past fact

- Not a promise for something in the future

Defendant takes title

Front 44

Robbery

Back 44

Larceny + assault

Elements:

1) Wrongful taking of the personal property of another

2) Carrying away

3) Without consent

4) Intent to deprive owner permanently of his interest in the property

5) From the person or his presence
- Presence is very broadly drawn

6) By force or intimidation

- Force: any amount of violence is enough (not pick-pocketing)

- Intimidation: putting in fear by threat of imminent harm

Front 45

Extortion

Back 45

Blackmail

Distinguish from robbery

1) Does not have to be from person or his presence

2) Threat – future harm

Front 46

Burglary

Back 46

1) Breaking
- Actual – by force, however slight
- Constructive – by fraud (Ex. key to housekeeper who enters later with other people)
- If the door or window is wide open, there is no “breaking.” But once defendant opens an interior door, that is “breaking”

2) Entering
- Any part of defendant’s body

3) Dwelling house of another

4) At night

5) With intent to commit felony inside
- Intent must exist at the time of breaking and entering

Front 47

Arson

Back 47

1) Malicious burning
- Fire only (not water damage, smoke damage or explosions)

2) Of dwelling house of another
- Must be a material wasting of fiber of the building by fire (not carpets)
- Not your own house