Criminal Law & Procedure Outline

I. HOMICIDE

A. INTENDED KILLINGS

1. Premeditation, Deliberation

2. Provocation

B. UNINTENDED KILLINGS

1. Intent to Injure

2. Reckless and Negligent Killings

3. Felony Murder

4. Misdemeanor Manslaughter

II. OTHER CRIMES

A. THEFT AND RECEIVING STOLEN GOODS

B. ROBBERY

C. BURGLARY

D. ASSAULT AND BATTERY

E. RAPE; STATUTORY RAPE

F. KIDNAPPING

G. ARSON

H. POSSESSION OFFENSES

III. INCHOATE CRIMES; PARTIES

A. INCHOATE OFFENSES

1. Attempts

2. Conspiracy

3. Solicitation

B. PARTIES TO CRIME

IV. General Principles

A. Acts and Omissions

  1. Actus Reus - A voluntary act or omission that causes a social harm.
    • Voluntary Act: A physical and voluntary act. Unconscious acts, acts while asleep or under hypnosis are not voluntary.
    • Omission (Failure to Act): A failure to act when there is a legal duty to do so. A legal duty exists when:
      • A statute requires action.
      • The relationship between the defendant and victim imposes a duty (e.g., parent-child, spouse-spouse).
      • A contract obligates the defendant to act (e.g., a lifeguard).
      • The defendant voluntarily assumes a duty and prevents others from helping.
      • The defendant created the risk of harm.
      • Moral Duty: A moral duty alone is not enough to create a legal duty to act.

B. State of Mind (Mens Rea)

  1. Required Mental State - The mental state the defendant must have had at the time of the crime to be guilty of the offense.
    • Common Law Mental States:
      • Strict Liability: No mens rea is required. The act itself is enough for guilt.
      • General Intent: An awareness of all factors constituting the crime. Generally, the intent to perform the act.
      • Specific Intent: The intent to commit the criminal act and the intent to achieve a specific result.
      • Malice: Acting intentionally or with reckless disregard of an obvious or known risk.
      • Transferred Intent: Intent to harm one person is transferred to the person actually harmed.
    • Model Penal Code (MPC) Mental States:
      • Purposely: Conscious object to engage in conduct or cause a result.
      • Knowingly: Aware that conduct is of a certain nature or that a result is practically certain to occur.
      • Recklessly: Consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
      • Negligently: Should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk.
  2. Strict Liability - Crimes where no mens rea is required. The act itself is enough for guilt.
    • Examples: Statutory rape, selling alcohol to minors.
  3. Mistake of Fact or Law - A mistake that negates the required mens rea.
    • Mistake of Fact:
      • Specific Intent Crimes: Any mistake (reasonable or unreasonable) can be a defense.
      • General Intent Crimes: Only a reasonable mistake is a defense.
      • Strict Liability Crimes: Mistake of fact is not a defense.
    • Mistake of Law: Generally, not a defense, even if relying on advice from a lawyer. Limited exceptions exist.

C. Responsibility

  1. Mental Disorder (Insanity) - A legal defense based on the defendant's mental state at the time of the crime. The defendant has the burden of raising this defense.
    • Tests for Insanity:
      • M'Naghten Rule: Due to mental disease or defect, the defendant did not know the nature and quality of the act or did not know it was wrong.
      • Irresistible Impulse Test: Due to mental disease or defect, the defendant could not control their actions.
      • Durham Test (New Hampshire): The crime was the product of the defendant's mental disease or defect.
      • MPC Test: Due to mental disease or defect, the defendant lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct or conform their conduct to the law.
  2. Intoxication - Can negate the mens rea for some crimes.
    • Voluntary Intoxication: Only a defense to specific intent crimes if it negates the specific intent.
    • Involuntary Intoxication: Treated like insanity and can be a defense to both specific and general intent crimes.

D. Causation

  1. Actual Cause ("But-For" Causation): The defendant's conduct must be the cause-in-fact of the harm. The harm would not have occurred but for the defendant's conduct.
  2. Proximate Cause (Legal Cause): The harm must be a foreseeable result of the defendant's conduct.
  3. Intervening Actions: Can break the chain of causation if they are unforeseeable and supersede the defendant's conduct as the cause of the harm.

E. Justification and Excuse

F. Jurisdiction

V. Constitutional Protection of Accused Persons

A. Arrest, Search and Seizure

  1. Fourth Amendment Protection: Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is excluded from trial.
    • Government Conduct: The Fourth Amendment only applies to government actors, not private citizens.
    • Search: A government intrusion into a place where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
    • Seizure: A meaningful interference with a person's possessory interest in property or liberty.
  2. Warrant Requirement: Generally, a warrant is required for a search or seizure to be reasonable.
    • Probable Cause: A warrant must be supported by probable cause, meaning there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in the place to be searched.
    • Neutral and Detached Magistrate: A warrant must be issued by a neutral and detached magistrate.
    • Particularity: A warrant must describe with particularity the place to be searched and the things to be seized.
  3. Exceptions to the Warrant Requirement:
    • Exigent Circumstances: A warrantless search is allowed if there is an immediate danger to life or property, or a risk of evidence being destroyed.
    • Search Incident to Lawful Arrest: A warrantless search of a person and the area within their immediate control is allowed during a lawful arrest.
    • Consent: A warrantless search is allowed if the person with authority over the place to be searched consents.
    • Plain View: A warrantless seizure is allowed if the officer is lawfully present in a place and the contraband or evidence is in plain view.
    • Automobile Exception: A warrantless search of a vehicle is allowed if there is probable cause to believe it contains contraband or evidence.
    • Inventory Search: A warrantless search of an impounded vehicle is allowed for inventory purposes.
    • Stop and Frisk (Terry Stop): A brief investigatory detention and pat-down for weapons is allowed if there is reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
    • Border Searches: Warrantless searches are allowed at borders.

B. Confessions and the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination

  1. Fifth Amendment Privilege: Protects against compelled self-incrimination.
    • Testimonial Evidence: Only applies to testimonial evidence, not physical evidence.
    • Miranda Rights: Before custodial interrogation, suspects must be informed of their right to remain silent, their right to counsel, and that anything they say can be used against them.
      • Custody: A person is in custody if they are not free to leave.
      • Interrogation: Questioning or any words or actions by police that are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.
      • Waiver: A suspect can waive their Miranda rights, but the waiver must be knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.
      • Invocation: A suspect can invoke their right to remain silent or their right to counsel. The invocation must be clear and unequivocal.
    • Exclusionary Rule: Confessions obtained in violation of the Fifth Amendment are excluded from trial.
      • Impeachment Exception: Confessions obtained in violation of Miranda can be used for impeachment purposes.
      • Fruit of the Poisonous Tree: Evidence derived from a coerced confession is also inadmissible.
    • Immunity: The government can compel testimony by granting immunity.
      • Use Immunity: Testimony cannot be used against the witness.
      • Transactional Immunity: Witness cannot be prosecuted for any crimes related to the transaction about which they testify.

C. Lineups and Other Forms of Identification

  1. Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel: Applies to post-indictment lineups and show-ups.
  2. Due Process: Applies to all identification procedures.
    • Reliability: The identification procedure must be reliable.
    • Suggestiveness: Suggestive procedures that create a substantial likelihood of misidentification violate due process.

D. Right to Counsel

  1. Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel: Guarantees the right to counsel at all critical stages of a criminal proceeding.
    • Critical Stages: Include custodial interrogations, post-indictment lineups, preliminary hearings, arraignments, felony trials, sentencing, and appeals as a matter of right.
    • Waiver: The right to counsel can be waived, but the waiver must be knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.
  2. Effective Assistance of Counsel: The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to effective assistance of counsel.
    • Strickland Test: To prove ineffective assistance of counsel, the defendant must show:
      • Counsel's performance was deficient.
      • The deficient performance prejudiced the defense.

E. Fair Trial and Guilty Pleas

  1. Fair Trial: The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a fair trial.
    • Impartial Jury: The right to a trial by an impartial jury.
      • Jury Selection: Jurors must be selected from a fair cross-section of the community.
      • Challenges for Cause: Jurors can be struck for cause if they are biased or otherwise unqualified.
      • Peremptory Challenges: Jurors can be struck without cause, but not based on race, ethnicity, or gender.
    • Speedy Trial: The right to a speedy trial.
    • Public Trial: The right to a public trial.
    • Confrontation Clause: The right to confront witnesses against the defendant.
    • Compulsory Process: The right to compel witnesses to testify for the defendant.
    • Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: The prosecution must prove all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. Guilty Pleas: A defendant can waive their right to a trial and plead guilty.
    • Knowing, Intelligent, and Voluntary: The plea must be knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.
    • Plea Colloquy: The judge must personally ensure the defendant understands the nature of the charges, the rights they are waiving, and the consequences of the plea.
    • Factual Basis: There must be a factual basis for the plea.
    • Withdrawal of Plea: A defendant may be able to withdraw a guilty plea under certain circumstances.

F. Double Jeopardy

  1. Fifth Amendment Protection: Protects against being tried twice for the same offense.
    • Attachment of Jeopardy: Jeopardy attaches when the jury is sworn in or, in a bench trial, when the first witness is sworn in.
    • Same Offense: The Blockburger test is used to determine if two offenses are the same for double jeopardy purposes.
    • Exceptions: Retrial is allowed if:
      • The first trial ended in a hung jury.
      • The defendant successfully appealed the conviction.
      • The defendant breached a plea agreement.
    • Dual Sovereignty Doctrine: A defendant can be tried for the same offense by both the state and federal governments.

G. Cruel and Unusual Punishment

  1. Eighth Amendment Protection: Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
    • Proportionality: The punishment must be proportionate to the crime.
    • Death Penalty: Special considerations apply to the death penalty, including the requirement of individualized sentencing and consideration of mitigating factors.

H. Burdens of Proof and Persuasion

  1. Burden of Proof: The obligation to prove a fact.
    • Prosecution's Burden: The prosecution has the burden of proving all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
    • Defendant's Burden: The defendant may have the burden of proving an affirmative defense.
  2. Burden of Persuasion: The obligation to convince the fact finder.

I. Appeal and Error

  1. Preservation of Error: To appeal an issue, the defendant must have preserved the error by objecting at trial.
  2. Plain Error: An error that affects the defendant's substantial rights may be reviewed even if not preserved.
  3. Harmless Error: An error that does not affect the outcome of the trial will not result in reversal.
  4. Standards of Review: Appellate courts apply different standards of review depending on the type of error.


Revision #3
Created 17 January 2025 17:22:07 by Ekospirit
Updated 17 January 2025 17:32:33 by Ekospirit