Criminal Law and Procedure UBE

Federal Jurisdiction

The broad power of the United States to criminalize and prosecute crimes occurring anywhere inside the US, on high seas, in the air, or committed by US nationals abroad.

Extraterritorial Jurisdiction

The authority of the US government to prosecute US nationals for crimes committed abroad, such as a US citizen paying for sex in a country where it is legal.

State Jurisdiction

The power of a state government to prosecute crimes that occur in whole or in part inside the state or involve an attempt or conspiracy overt act within the state.

Actus Reus

A voluntary physical act, or qualifying omission or speech such as threats, that constitutes criminal conduct prohibited by law.

Voluntary (Actus Reus)

A requirement that the person had motor control over the act, regardless of whether the act was intended.

Omission

A failure to act that can constitute actus reus if there is a statutory duty, special relationship, voluntary assumption of care, or if the defendant caused the peril.

Statutory Duty Omission

Criminal liability arising from failing to comply with legal requirements, such as filing a tax return or registering for the selective service at age 18.

Special Relationships (Actus Reus)

Legal duties to act that arise between parents and children, caregivers, spouses, or foster parents.

Voluntarily Assumed Duty of Care

When a defendant assumes a duty to help someone and then casts it aside, resulting in criminal liability.

Callous Bystander

An individual who witnesses a crime but is not criminally liable for failing to act because they lack a legal duty.

Mens Rea

The mental state or 'guilty mind' required for criminal liability.

Specific Intent

A mental state where the defendant committed the actus reus with the specific intent of causing the result that the law criminalizes.

FIAT

A mnemonic for the four categories of specific intent crimes: First-degree murder, Inchoate crimes (CATS), Assault with attempt to commit battery, and Theft offenses.

CATS

A mnemonic for inchoate crimes: Conspiracy, ATtempt, and Solicitation.

Theft Offenses (Specific Intent)

A category of FIAT crimes including larceny, embezzlement, forgery, burglary, and robbery.

Malice

When a defendant acts with reckless disregard for a high risk of harm; applies to Common Law Arson and Murder (other than first-degree).

Arson (Common Law Malice)

The malicious burning of a dwelling of another person.

Malice Tip-Off

Statutory language using the phrase 'with malice' to indicate the required mental state.

General Intent

A mental state where the defendant intended to perform an action that is unlawful, regardless of whether they intended the specific result.

General Intent Crime Examples

Crimes such as battery, kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment, and manslaughter.

Strict Liability

Offenses that require no mens rea; the defendant is liable just for committing the act, such as statutory rape or regulatory offenses.

Purpose (Model Penal Code)

When a defendant's conscious objective is to engage in the conduct or cause a specific result.

Knowledge (Model Penal Code)

When a defendant is aware that their conduct is of the nature required for the crime and the result is practically certain to occur.

Recklessness (Model Penal Code)

A conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct of a law-abiding person.

Negligence (Model Penal Code)

When a defendant should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk and acts in a way that grossly deviates from the standard of care of a reasonable person.

Transferred Intent

A legal doctrine where intent to commit a crime against one person is transferred if the defendant accidentally commits it against another person.

Vicarious Liability

When a person or entity, such as a corporation, is held liable for the actus reus committed by an employee acting within the scope of employment.

Merger Doctrine

A rule that prevents a defendant from being convicted of two crimes that merge into one from the same act.

Lesser-included Offenses

Related crimes where one merges into the more serious one, such as larceny merging into robbery if both occur in the same run.

Inchoate and Completed Offenses merger

Attempt and solicitation merge into the completed crime; a defendant cannot be convicted of both for the same act.

Conspiracy Merger Exception

Unlike attempt or solicitation, conspiracy and the completed act do NOT merge; a defendant can be convicted of both.

Capacity - Under 7 Years Old

Children in this age group are considered incapable of committing crimes under common law.

Capacity - 7 to 13 Years Old

Children in this age group are rebuttably assumed incapable of committing crimes under common law.

Capacity - 14 Years Old and Older

Children in this age group can be charged as adults under common law.

Principal

The defendant whose acts or omissions form the actus reus of the crime.

Accomplice

Someone who assists the principal before or during the crime with the intent of assisting the commission of the crime.

Accomplice Liability Scope

Responsibility for the planned crime and any other foreseeable crimes that occur during the criminal act.

Accomplice vs. Protected Statute

An exception where a person protected by a statute (like a minor in statutory rape cases) cannot be an accomplice.

Accomplice (Majority/MPC Mentality)

Must act with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the offense and intend to assist or encourage the criminal conduct.

• Versus Minority: intentionally OR knowingly (easier to be an accomplice)

Criminal Facilitation

A lesser offense for a person who assists in a crime but is not guilty of the substantive crime itself.

Accessories after the fact

People who help a defendant after a crime is committed; they are guilty of separate crimes like obstruction of justice or harboring a fugitive.

Mistake of Law

A legal defense asserting that an individual is not liable for a crime due to a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge regarding the law itself — typically not valid.

• Exceptions: reliance on high-level government interpretation, lack of notice, charged with a FIAT crime where mistake of law is screwing up one of the necessary elements (i.e. mistake of law where you thought property was yours but being charged with larceny… FIAT crime that requires you intended to steal someone else’s property)

Mistake of Law Exception (Reliance)

Reliance on an official interpretation from a high-level government official like the Attorney General or a federal agency.

Lack of Notice (Due Process)

A defense to Mistake of Law if the statute was not reasonably available or failed to provide adequate notice of prohibited conduct.

Mistake of Fact (Specific Intent)

Any honest mistake, whether reasonable or unreasonable, is a defense if it negates the required mental state.

Mistake of Fact (General Intent)

A mistake must be both honest and reasonable to serve as a defense.

Insanity

A defense focused on the defendant's mental state at the exact time the crime was committed.

M’Naghten Rule

A test for insanity where the defendant did not know the nature of the act or that the act was wrong due to mental disease or defect.

Irresistible Impulse

A test for insanity where a mental disease or defect prevents the defendant from exercising self-control.

Durham Rule

An insanity test where the defendant is not liable if the crime would not have been committed 'but for' a mental disease or defect.

MPC Insanity Test

A test where the defendant lacks substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of actions or conform conduct to the law.

Burden of Proof (Insanity Majority)

The defendant typically has the burden to prove insanity by a preponderance or clear and convincing evidence.

Involuntary Intoxication

Intoxication caused by not realizing an intoxicant was received, being coerced, or having an unexpected reaction to prescription medicine.

Voluntary Intoxication (Specific Intent)

A defense only for FIAT crimes if the intoxication prevented the defendant from forming the required mens rea.

Alcohol for Courage

The voluntary intoxication defense is 'dead' if the defendant drank specifically to get the courage to commit a crime.

Conspiracy (Common Law/Federal)

Requires an actual agreement between two or more people with the intent to go forward (meeting of the minds).

Conspiracy (MPC/Majority State)

Only the defendant needs to agree to commit the crime, even if the other party is an undercover agent.

Pinkerton liability

A co-conspirator is liable for the conspiracy itself and substantive crimes committed by others in furtherance of the conspiracy.

Chain Conspiracy

A single conspiracy where participants perform different roles in a sequence and know the overall outcome depends on the others.

Spoke-Hub Conspiracy

When one central 'hub' separately conspires with multiple 'spokes'; the spokes are not liable for each other's crimes.

Withdrawal (Common Law)

Impossible to withdraw from a conspiracy because the crime is complete the moment the agreement is made.

Withdrawal (Federal Law)

Requires withdrawal before the overt act and conveying intent to all other conspirators or law enforcement.

Withdrawal (MPC)

Possible only if the defendant helps to thwart the conspiracy's success.

Attempt

A specific intent crime requiring the intent to commit a particular criminal act and taking a substantial step towards its completion.

Substantial Step (Attempt)

Conduct that goes beyond mere preparation and shows the defendant has begun carrying out the plan, such as laying in wait.

Mere Preparation

Actions such as drawing a map or buying equipment that do not yet constitute a criminal 'attempt.'

Solicitation (Definition)

When an individual invites, encourages, requests, or commands another to commit a crime with intent that the crime be committed.

Actual Cause (Homicide)

The 'but for' cause: the victim would not have died but for the defendant's actions.

Proximate Cause (Homicide)

Determination of whether the victim's death was a foreseeable result of the defendant's action.

Gross Medical Negligence (Homicide)

Severe medical errors, like operating on the wrong body part, which may break the chain of proximate cause for a defendant.

First-Degree Murder

A specific intent crime involving a deliberate and premeditated murder or a killing resulting from a dangerous felony.

Common Law Murder

The unlawful killing of another human being committed with malice aforethought.

Intent to Inflict Serious Bodily Harm

A form of malice where the defendant acts to hurt the victim badly and they end up dying.

Abandoned/Malignant/Depraved Heart

Malice involving a cavalier disregard for human life that results in death, such as throwing bowling balls off an overpass.

Felony Murder

Malice resulting from a death that occurs during the commission or attempted commission of a dangerous felony (BARRK).

BARRK

The mnemonic for felonies that trigger felony murder: Burglary, Arson, Rape, Robbery, and Kidnapping.

Agency Theory (Felony Murder)

The majority rule where a defendant is only liable for deaths caused by themselves or their agents (co-felons).

Manslaughter

The residual category for all unlawful killings of another human being that are not first-degree or common-law murder.

Voluntary Manslaughter

An intentional killing occurring in the heat of passion or under extreme emotional distress.

Heat of Passion (Provocation)

Situations where most people would act without thinking, such as walking in on a spouse with another or being sexually assaulted.

Involuntary Manslaughter

A criminally negligent killing or a killing that occurs during the commission of a crime not covered by felony murder.

Larceny

The trespassory taking and carrying away of another's tangible personal property with intent to permanently deprive them of it.

Trespassory Taking

Taking property without the owner's consent; the defendant must prove consent as an affirmative defense.

Intent to Permanently Deprive (Timing)

The requirement that the intent to keep property must exist at the exact moment the property is taken.

Embezzlement

Converting property to one's own use after initially obtaining the victim's consent to possess it.

False Pretenses

Obtaining title to another's property through deception.

Robbery

Larceny accomplished by violence, force, or putting the victim in fear of imminent physical harm.

Extortion

Obtaining another person's property through the use of future threats, which do not need to be physical.

Burglary (Common Law)

The breaking and entering of the dwelling of another at night with intent to commit a felony therein.

Breaking and Entering (Burglary)

Pushing open a door, smashing a window, or obtaining entry by fraud or threat.

Burglary (Modern Law)

The breaking and entering of any dwelling or commercial building at any time with intent to commit a felony.

Burglary Intent Requirement

The intent to commit a felony inside must have existed at the moment the defendant entered the building.

Battery

The unlawful application of force to another causing bodily harm or an offensive touching; it is a general intent crime.

Assault (Attempted Battery)

A specific intent FIAT crime occurring when a defendant takes a substantial step towards battery but fails.

Assault (Fear of Harm)

A general intent crime requiring the intentional placing of another in fear of imminent bodily harm.

Rape (Modern Law)

Sexual intercourse with anyone without consent; it is a general intent crime.

Statutory Rape (Modern Law)

Sexual intercourse with anyone under the age of consent; this is a strict liability offense.

Bigamy

The crime of marrying someone while already being legally married to another person.

Seduction

When a man induces a woman to have sex by a promise of marriage.

Kidnapping

The unlawful confinement of someone against their will involving moving or hiding the victim.