CJ 325 Exam 1: Content

Elements of a Crime: Actus Rea

• Wrongful Act

• Must be specific act of comission or omission of accused

• Faliure to take action can also be considered “wrongful act”

Omission

Faliure to act when legally requried too; it is your duty

Ex. Parent neglects child

Elements of a Crime:Mens Rea

• Guilty mind

• Wrongful act with Criminal intention (why they acted)

  • NOT MOTIVE- Reason why

Mens Rea Exempt

• Lack capactiy to understand the wrongfulness of their actions (Childrens and disbaled people)

• Factors beyone persons control

• Act justifiable (Self defense)

Elements of a Crime:Concurrence of action and intent

Must be a “link” between the actus reaus and men rea

Ex. David Garcia kills wife. Court ruled attack was induced by insulin deprivation no link to murder for he did not have the intent to kill his wife

Elements of a Crime: Harm

Act must cause harm to a person, property, reprutation, safety, peace, social intrest, etc.

Elements of a Crime: Causation

Must be casual realtionship between act and harm suffered ACT AND HARM MUST BE LINKED (Smith pokes me with a pencil and I die soon for she didnt know I was on blood thinners she wouldnt be charged greatly as she didnt have the intent to kill me)

Approach to Mens Rea

Purposeful: Desire “you want to"“ to cause result

Knowing: Aware of the nature of the act

Reckless: Indiffrence (dont care) for others safety and rights

Negligent: taking unnecessary risks (unjustifable risks)

Felonies

• More serious than misdimeonous

• prision sentence 1+

• Ex. Murder, rape, kidnapping, arrson

Misdemeanors

• Less than a year

• Examples: petty theft, simple assult, public drunkness

Mala in Se

• Offenses that are morally wrong universally

  • Ex. rape, murder, robbery, arson

Mala prohibita

• Offesnese that are wrong simply because the law makes it wrong

• Crimes now that was not in the past.

• Ex. Traffic offenses; paul miller law-no hand held devices

Sehcdule III Drugs

• Drug has potetional abuse less than dugs in I and II.

• Has been accepted for medial use

• Low physical dependency; high psychological dependency

Substantive Law

Law prohibits certain forms of conduct by defining and establishing parameters of penalties

Law on the book (laws that have been passed one way or another)

Ex. Can’t have weed

Procedural Law

• Law regulates enformcent of the substantive law.

• Determines guilt and punishment

  • Ex. What happens when cop finds weed in my car, home, pocket, how will I be punished

Crime is defined by

Judge

Case Law

• Court use past cases to help make there decsisons

• Stare Decisis: Stand by decided matters

Statutory interpertation

What the legistlature means?

Constitutional interpertation

What the constitution means?

Appellate court

• Perform an important lawmaking function

• error correction function

Due Process

• Protects from unwanted searches and seizures, unlawful confinment, assumes innocence until proven guilty

• Burden of proof rest with prosecution

• Reasonable doubt and standard of proof

Pretial Motions

Submit motions for continuances, surpress, change in venue etc.

Arraignment

• Identity of defendant is estbalished

• the defendant is infomred of the charge and of his or her rights

• defendat is required to enter a plea

—-Pleas entered—-

• guilty/not guilty

• No contest (nolo contendere)

• To remain silent which leads to automatic not guilty plea

Grand Jury (jurors are the fact finders)

Information or Indictment

• Formal accusation that is submitted by gradn jury to court stating person commited a crime.

Preliminary Hearing

Porcess infront of judical officer which 3 factors are decided

• If crime was commited

• If crime is in court jurisdiction

• If theres reasonable ground to blame the deendant for the crime

  • Judge determines proable cause

    • Crime commited?

    • If defendant commited it

Jury Selection

• Defendants at both levels (S & F) have right to jury trial if incaration is more then 6 months

• Venire- Potential jurors are selected

Voir dire

Porcess of jury selection; line of questioning to find suitable jury

Federal level: Judge does the questioning

State level: Attorney conduct questioning

Faliure to Act (To be guilty of a crime)

• MUST have legal duty to act in the first place:

  • 1)By relationship of the actor to the victim

  • 2) by statutory duty

  • 3) contract between actor & victim

Actual Possession

Have direct control over something (Drugs in your pocket)

Constructive Possession

Have power to control something either directly or through someone else.

• Ex. drugs in the family room and you dorm with 5 people,

Status

• Person state of being and state cannot criminilze one for it

  • Ex. Being a theif is not a crime theft is

(Established in Robison v. California)

Specific Intent

Defintion: accomplish the exact act thats a crime knowing the results for you want that to happen

Layterms: Plan actual act and harm that comes with it

Ex: “I punch you in the nose becuase I want to break it”

In law: It is prohibited to commit burlgry with the intent to steal

General Intent (willfully, intentionally)

Defintion: Intend to do the act but did not want to cause the results from the act.

Ex. “I know Im drunk and going to drive, but didnt mean to kill a family”

Trasnfered Intent (Doctrine)

• Person intends to commit one criminal act but accomplishes another.

• Ex. I plan to punch my bother but my sister gets in the way and I hit her instead".

Strict Liabilty Offense (mala prohibita cases mostly)

Legislative bodies have the power to disregard intent and still punish you for the crime

• The act commited is enough

• I ran the stop sign, but I didnt see it hence didnt mean to (you still ran the stop sign)

Principal in the first degree

Person who commited the crime ( Sarah is robbing the bank)

Principal in the second degree

• Party who aids, counsles, assit or encourages person to commit the crime but didnt do the action themselves

• Ex. Anna helps sarah rob the bank by being lookout + get away car

  • Accomplice

Acessory Before the Fact

• Person who knows the crime is going for they help prepare it, but was not present during the crime.

• More in trouble because they could have prevented the crime

  • Ex. Friend knows your going to kill somone hence helps you get the gun & body bag

Accesory After the Fact

• Person who knew the crime was commited and gaive aid to the person who commited the crime (Happened after the crime is commited

• Ex. Your friends kills somone you help them bury the body and clean the crime scene

Incomplete (inchoate) Crimes

• Attempt

  • Not a crime at early common law

  • Three elements

    • Defendant must intend to commit crime

    • Defenant must act in cause of that intent

    • Crime is not completed

Defesne to crime

• Abandoment (defendant changed there mind and deosnt want commit the crime)

• Legal impossibilty (When one commiting the crime thinks its illegal when its not)

• Factual impossibilty ( Impoosible to commit the crime but can be still liable for they intended on commiting a crime)

• Conspiracy (two people agree to commit the crime in a unlawful manner)

  • Co-conspirtor hearsay rule: If someone part of a proven consipercy then if they speak about you it can be used as evidence.

• Solicitation: making, encouraging, requesting someone else to commit the crime

Trial Court

• Courty Courthouse

• Surronded by public more open and visible

• Media Presnese

• One Judge in hearing

Appellate Courts

• Capitol Building

• “Invisible court”

• Hearings are limited to attorney arguments

• Panel of judges

• Reviews records of lower courts.

Juvinile Justice System

• Specialized courts law enformcent nd social serivces for children

  • juvinile deliquency

  • Child neglect & abuse

  • Status offenses

Judge

• Like the refree in the court room and sometimes the fact finder

• Ensure justice and maintain court order

Prosecutors

• Represents the goverment

• Have alot of discretion

  • Major one: Allowed to charge somone with an offense

• Choose what cases to take (wont take weak cases or cases with alot of gaps)

  • Represent the people

  • Act as quasi-legal advisor of local police

  • Demonstrate guilt beyond resonable doubt

Juducial Sytem

Federal Judges- Nominated by president

State Judges- Selected through popular election, political appointment

Missouri Bar Plan

• Combines election and Appointment

• Candiates chosen from non partisan nominating committee.

• Popular elected judges are run along campaign funding.

Criminal trial

Court rule govern admissbility of evidence at criminal hearings and trials

Adversarial system

• 2 sided strcutre under American criminal trial courts operate that pits the prosecution against the defense.

  • Prescutors vs. Defense Relation

Correction System

• Prisons & jails

• probation

• Parole

• supervised community service

Homocide

Killing of a human by another human

Murder

Unlawful killing with the malice intent to kill

Manslaughter

Unlawful killing that doesn’t involve malice (intent to kill")

(NOT a Freak accident-Drunk driving and run over family)

Non Criminal homocide

Justifable or Excusable

• Justifable- Person has the intent to kill but it is allowed for it resulted from self degense or by commnad of law

  • (Police shoots person for shooting in crowd)

• Excusable- Murder commited= through accident or misfortune

  • Ex. Your following all driving rules and a kid jumps infront of your car

First Degree Murder

Planned and intened to kill

Second Dregree murder

Did not plan to kill but did kill

Voluntary Manslaughter

“Heat of Passion “In the moment”

• There was no malice thought (no intent) but just happened at the moment

• Ex. I was mad and hit him with a bat but i didnt mean to kill him

Involuntary Manslaughter

• Death results from a lawful act

• Prosecution typically must prove criminal negligene

Ex. Person was speeding and kill the child

Excusable Homicide

• Commited by accident or misfortune or in doing any other lawful act by lawful means, without any unlawful intent

  • Ex. I am driving with full attention and a kid jumps infront of my car

  • Textbook: A death that results from a vechliuclar accident where the driver is not negligent is an example of excusable homocide.

Justifiable Homicide

• Intent to cause death is often present.

  • Ex. A police officers shoots a person shooting in a crowd, this form of homocide would be….

  • Textbook: Death is inflicted by public officers engaging in their legal duties, or when necessarily commited in apprehending felons, it is considering….

Vehicular Homocide

“The reckless killing of another by the operation of an automobile, airplane, motoboat or other motor vehicle

• Includes death as a result of the drivers intoxication (Drunk driving)

Reckless homocide

The “reckless killing of another”

• Ex.Speeding through a school zone

Criminally Negligent Homocide

• Criminally negligent conduct which results in death

• Faliure to perceive (see) a substantial (high) and unjustifable risk

Ex. Someone is driving and get distracted with there phone and dont consider the risk and hit someone.

What prosecution needs to prove in homocide act

• Victim was alive before the homcide act

• Victim was killed by a criminal act or agency of another (corpus delicti)

• Victim’s death was proximately caused by the defendant.

Suicide

• Defintion: The intentional taking of ones life by self-destrcution

  • “Thou shall not kill” common law

Sucide- Criminal Law

• Thrust of statutory crimnal law has been to make it an offense for anyone to cause or aid another person to commit sucide

• Layterms: Offense if you help or be the reason why somone kills themselves.

Required for Physican Assisted Suicide (Death with Dignity Act)

1. 18 and up

2. Must have less than 6 months to live

3. 2 Verbal request (15-20 days apart) and one written

Vice Crimes-“victum” meaning fault or defect

• associated with number of crimes traditionally classfied as offenses against public morality and decency.

  • Crime that is immoral and indecent

    • Ex. Bigamy, obscenity

Prostitution

Somone who engages in indicrimnate sexual activty for hire

• Layterms: Someone who makes a income from sex work.

Solicitation

• Anyone engaged in selling, buying or attempting to buy sex is guilty for this

  • Only attempt is enough to be convicted

• Sex-For-Hire cases fall under STATE JURISDICTION, federal only apply if it crosses borders.

Sodomy

Defintion: Anal/oral sex between humans or bentween a human and animal, the latter often being termed “Bestiality”

• Layterms: Anal/oral sex between human & human or human & animal

Marriage (IS A CONTRACT)

• Regualtions include how many, who and how and when cermony will be performed

Voyerusim

• Person obtaining sexual gratfication from seeing another persons sexual organs/ sexual activites

• Lay terms: Non consensual recording/observation of somone in private areas

• Peeping Tom Laws

• Ex. Bathroom, changing rooms

Gambaling (Elements)

A consideration, a prize and a CHANCE!

DUI

• Person who is operating a Motor vechile as atutomatically “implied consent” for a field soberity test

Harrison Act (1914)

• First time goverment attempted to regulate sale/use cocaine

Marijuana Tax Act of 1937

• Criminilized those who did not pay the tax on transfer of cannabis (did proscute people at state level where it was illegal)

Property Crime TYPES

• Theft (Larcey)

• Forgery

• Worthless check

• Carjacking

• Extortion

• Burglary

• Arson

• Vanaldism

Larceny

Definition: Wrongful taking (caption) and carrying away (“asportation”) of personal property of another with the intent the permenetalty deprive the other of their

Identity theft

Person illegally obtained ones personal information in some way to commit fraud and other crimes.

Defense to property crime charge

If you accidently take somone elses property without the intent to steal and in good faith it can be used as your defense.

Burlgery (building)

breaking and entering in all types of private/commerical structures at anytime to commit a crime.

Arson

Willful and malicious burning of property even if its your own

White collar crime

• Commited by higher ups often nonviolent and only seek economic advantages.

Robbery

A taking somone property off of there body

• I snatch your purse

Assult

Offer to do bodily harm

• Im going to punch you

Battery

Completed Assult

• I punched you

Aggravated Offenses

• offense has a use of intrument that is dangerous and capable of producing death or bodily harm)

• Ex. Gun

• Court: Could the weapon cause major harm.

Stalking (General Intent Crime)

Willfully and repeadetly following, harrassing another and making threats against that person

• Often amongst intimate partners

Violent Behavior Stalking

Physically harming the victim or destroying property

Harassing Behavior Stalker

Called victim, followed victim sent gifts

Rape Shield Laws

• Cannot use past sexual history as evidence in court agaisnt victim

Megan Law

Sex offenders must register with local law enforcment agencies

Hate Crime

• Offenders select victims based on sexual oreitnation, religion, gender, race/ethnicity

  • Often racially motivated