CRIMINAL LAW MIDTERM OUTLINE Homicide - Malice - 1st Degree vs 2nd Degree Murder - Criminal Battery(Death) - Depraved Heart Murder: Reckless - Felony Murder Attempt: - 4 Tests for Attempt - Mere Preparation - Renunciation: Vol & Complete - Legal & Factual Impossibility - Assault: Attempted Battery Manslaughter - Imperfect Self-Defense - Adequate provocation - Involuntary Manslaughter - Misdemeanor-Manslaughter Solicitation & Conspiracy: - MPC Solicitation: Arrival? - MPC Conspiracy: Overt Act - Renunciation: Prevent Crime - Wharton Rule - Pinkerton Rule - Accomplice Liability - Mere Presence & MPC Abandonment Rape - Consent - MPC Recklessness vs ML Negligence - Fraud in Fact - Fraud in the Inducement - Fraudulent Representation - Statutory Rape Larceny - Larceny By Trick - False Pretenses - Embezzlement - Stolen Property Robbery & Burglary - Custody: Limited control - Possession: Unlimited control - Caption: Taking (Dominion) - Asportation: Carrying Away - Trespassory: Without permission Self Defense: - 3 General Principles - CL Preponderance vs ML Production - Castle Doctrine - Minority Retreat Rule - Defense of Others: Alter Ego Rule - Imperfect Self Defense: Unreasonable Defenses: - Justification vs Excuse - Albi: Defendant was somewhere else - Duress - Necessity - Entrapment: Objective vs Subjective - Dusky Competency Standard - 4 Tests for Insanity - Voluntary Intoxication: Specific Intent - Involuntary Intoxication Larceny: 1. The taking 2. And carrying away 3. Of the personal property 4. Of another 5. With the intent to permanently deprive that owner of the property Burglary: 1. The breaking and entering 2. Of the dwelling house 3. Of another 4. At night time 5. With intent to commit a felony therein Robbery: Larceny + 6. By force or threat Embezzlement: Fraudulent taking (conversion) of personal property by someone to whom it was entrusted. Larceny by Trick: The use of fraud/deceit to obtain the owner’s consent to possession. False Pretenses: 1. Acting with the intent to defraud 2. A person knowingly misrepresents a present or past fact 3. Which induces the victim to give defendant title to the property Receiving Stolen Property: Receiving, retaining, or disposing of stolen property, or property of another that one has a reasonable clue of inquiry as to the true owner. Attempt: 1. Intent to commit underlying crime 2. Act in furtherance Solicitation: Defendant asks another to commit a crime Conspiracy: An agreement between 2 or more people to commit a criminal act First Degree Murder: a. Willful, deliberate, & premeditated; or b. Felony murder: defined by statute;or c. Killing by poison or lying in wait Second Degree Murder: a. Any intentional killing other than 1st b. Intentionally causing serious bodily injury but where death was not intended c. Felony murder: defined by statute d. Depraved heart murder Voluntary Manslaughter: a. Imperfect Self-Defense b. Heat of Passion/Provoked Killing (1) Mental state that would ordinarily qualify as murder (2) When the defendant has been provoked by the victim into the heat of passion (3) A reasonable person would have been so provoked (4) Defendant has not cooled off by the time of the killing (5) A reasonable person would not have cooled off Involuntary Manslaughter: a. A reckless killing; a criminally negligent killing; a killing done with ordinary tort negligence; or b. Misdemeanor-Manslaughter c. Imperfect Self-Defense Rape 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Force/threat (objective) Against the will (resistance) Without consent Sexual intercourse General Intent Criminal Battery Causing an offensive touch Self-Defense: 1. Defendant is threatened with the use, or threat of the imminent use 2. Of unlawful 3. Force 4. That does or could cause physical injury 5. Which a reasonable person would believe could not be avoided without the use of physical force in defense, and 6. The defendant uses a reasonable amount of force, and 7. The defendant was not responsible for the situation Duress: 1. Defendant participated in the crime under the compulsion by another who used or threatened to use deadly force, and 2. He reasonably believed that such force would be used, and 3. He would not have participated in the crime except for the force or duress Necessity: 1. Defendant was faced with choice of 2 evils, and he choose the lesser evil, and 2. Defendant acted to prevent imminent harm, and 3. Defendant reasonably anticipated a direct causal relationship between his acts and the harm to be averted, and 4. Defendant had no legal alternative but to violate the law Entrapment: Claims the government manufactured the crime. - Subjective Test (Majority): Focuses on the defendant’s lack of predisposition. The defendant was not otherwise predisposed to commit the crime. - Objective Test (Minority & MPC): Focuses on the nature of the police conduct before the crime. Police engaged in impermissible conduct that would induce a law–abiding citizen to commit a crime. Insanity Test: - M’Naghten Rule: Unable to distinguish between right and wrong or otherwise didn't understand what he did because of a "disease of the mind." - Irresistible Impulse: Unable to control his impulses due to a mental disorder, leading to the commission of a criminal act. - Model Penal Code: Unable to act within legal constraints or failed to understand the criminality of his acts due to a mental defect. - Durham/New Hampshire: The unlawful act was a product of mental disease or defect, regardless of clinical diagnosis Dusky Competency Standard: 1. Whether the defendant has sufficient present ability to consult his attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and 2. Whether the defendant has a rational as well as factual understanding of proceedings against him. Involuntary Intoxication: Complete defense Voluntary Intoxication: Defense for Specific Intent Crimes if it negates Mens Rea 1st Degree Murder Willful: The intent to kill Deliberate: Determining a course of action to kill, weighing the pros and cons, considering the consequences. Not a rash impulse. Premeditative: A design, a determination to kill, distinctly formed in the mind by the time of the killing. Factors that might demonstrate premeditation; (1) Provocation by the deceased (2) Statements or conduct of the defendant before/after killing (3) Threats or declarations by the defendant during the course of conduct (4) Ill-will or previous difficulties between parties (5) Lethal blows after victim becomes helpless (6) Brutality (nature & number of wounds?) Rules and Tests for Attempt Proximity: The last proximate act – done everything needed to bring about the intended result Probable Distance: The accused’s conduct has gone past that point where one could stop Equivocality: No other purpose other than of crime commission Model Penal Code: Substantial step Legal Impossibility: Even if intended acts are done, there’s no crime Factual Impossibility: Mistaken about the facts, but if they had been correct, the crime could be accomplished Rules for Rape Fraud in Fact: When the defendant obtains the victim’s consent to perform one act, but instead engages in another act. Fraud in the Inducement: When the defendant makes misrepresentations to the victim in order to get her consent for a particular act, and then proceeds to carry out that very act Fraudulent Representation: When the victim is unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose. Rules for Conspiracy Wharton Rule: Prohibits prosecution of conspiracy to commit particular offense when the offense in question can only be committed by at least 2 persons Pinkerton Rule: All conspirators are liable for all crimes or offenses committed in furtherance of the conspiracy, even if those offenses are actually performed by co-conspirators Accomplice Liability: Assists, aids, or encourages the principal in the commission of the offense Principal in the 1st Degree: Actual perpetrator of the crime Principal in the 2nd Degree: Present at the scene of the crime, assisting the principal in the 1st degree. Accessory before the Fact: not present at the crime scene; counseled, advised or directed commission of the crime. Accessory after the Fact: Knows a crime was committed; aids and assists the felon in escape MPC Abandonment: Terminates complicity prior to the offense & 1. Must render prior assistance completely ineffective, or 2. Makes a proper effort to prevent the crime, or notify police. Self Defense Principles Necessity: Must the defendant use force against an imminent attack? Proportionality: How hard can the victim of an attack hit back? Reasonable belief: Subjective: Honest belief of imminent attack, and Objective: reasonable belief Castle Doctrine: No duty to retreat upon one who, free from fault, is attacked at his own dwelling house. A man’s house is his castle.
