Criminal Law Lecture Notes & Case Briefs

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering common law and modern statutory definitions of crimes against the person, crimes against property, inchoate offenses, degrees of liability, and affirmative defenses.

Murder (Common Law)

The unlawful killing of one human being by another human being with malice aforethought.

Express Malice

The deliberate and intentional purpose unlawfully to take away the life of a human being (intent to kill).

Implied Malice

A state of mind characterized by a wanton, willful, and conscious disregard for human life, an intent to cause serious bodily injury, or the commission of an inherently dangerous felony under the felony murder rule.

Felony Murder Rule

A doctrine holding an accused strictly liable for murder under implied malice if a death occurs during the commission of an underlying qualifying felony.

Voluntary Manslaughter

An unlawful intentional homicide committed without malice aforethought, typically occurring in the heat of passion following legally adequate provocation with no reasonable cooling-off period.

Imperfect Self-Defense

A defense that mitigates murder to voluntary manslaughter when a defendant subjectively believes they must use deadly force in self-defense, but that belief is objectively unreasonable.

Involuntary Manslaughter

An unintentional homicide resulting from criminal negligence (acting without due caution and circumspection during a lawful act) or from the commission of an unlawful non-felony act under the misdemeanor manslaughter rule.

Battery

The unlawful application of force upon another person resulting in harmful or unconsented touching; it requires an intent to commit the action causing the touch.

Assault (Common Law)

An attempted battery consisting of an act that goes beyond mere preparation into the zone of perpetration or constitutes a substantial step toward the target offense.

Assault (Modern Statutory Law)

Intentionally placing another person in reasonable apprehension or imminent fear of receiving an immediate battery.

Rape (Common Law)

Unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman by a man, forcibly and against her will without her consent, excluding marital partners.

Statutory Rape

Consensual sexual intercourse with an individual who is below the statutory age of consent.

Kidnapping (Modern Law)

The unlawful taking and carrying away (asportation) of a person from one place to another by force or threat of force.

Mayhem

The malicious dismemberment, disabling, or permanent disfigurement of another person's bodily member, rendering them less able to fight or defend themselves.

Burglary (Common Law)

The trespassory breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony therein.

Curtilage

The enclosed space of ground and outbuildings immediately surrounding and belonging to a dwelling house; an outhouse separated by a public thoroughfare is outside the curtilage.

Arson (Common Law)

The malicious burning of the dwelling house of another, requiring an actual charring or burning rather than mere scorching.

Malicious Mischief

The malicious destruction, alteration, or damaging of the personal or real property of another.

Larceny

The trespassory taking and carrying away of the personal property of another with the specific intent to permanently deprive the possessor thereof.

Larceny by Trick

A form of larceny where the initial taking is accomplished with the consent of the possessor, but that consent is vitiated by the defendant's deceit or fraud, transferring possession but not title.

Embezzlement

The fraudulent conversion or misappropriation of personal property of another by someone who was already in lawful possession through entrustment.

False Pretenses

Obtaining both title and possession of the personal property of another through a knowing and false representation of a material fact with the intent to defraud.

Custody vs. Possession

The distinction where an individual has limited physical control over property (custody, typical of employees and bank tellers) versus full lawful dominion and control (possession, typical of bailees and financial managers).

Doctrine of Continuing Trespass

A legal fiction providing that an initial wrongful taking continues without consent so that when a felonious intent to permanently deprive is later formed, mens rea and actus reus coincide to constitute larceny.

Robbery

The felonious taking and carrying away of the personal property of another from their person or immediate presence through the use of force, threat, or intimidation.

Claim of Right Defense

A defense against theft-based crimes such as larceny and robbery where the actor takes property under an honest, good-faith belief that the property belongs to them, negating felonious intent.

Receiving Stolen Property

Acquiring control or possession of property with knowledge at the exact time of receipt that the property was stolen by another person.

Forgery

The fraudulent making or materially altering of a written document that possesses apparent legal efficacy, executed with the intent to defraud.

Uttering

Knowingly offering, passing, publishing, or tendering as genuine a false or forged instrument with the intent to defraud.

Attempt

A specific intent offense consisting of an act performed with intent to commit a substantive crime that extends beyond mere preparation into the zone of perpetration or constitutes a substantial step toward completion.

Factual Impossibility

A condition where extraneous facts or circumstances unknown to the defendant prevent the consummation of the intended crime; it does not serve as a valid legal defense to attempt.

Legal Impossibility

A condition where the intended act, even if completed successfully, would not violate any criminal law; it constitutes a valid defense against an attempt charge.

Solicitation

An inchoate crime that occurs when a person commands, encourages, hires, or requests another to commit a crime with the specific intent that the crime be executed.

Conspiracy

An agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act or to achieve a lawful purpose by unlawful means; modern law additionally requires an overt act in furtherance of the agreement.

Wharton's Rule

A criminal law doctrine stating that an agreement between two parties cannot be prosecuted as a conspiracy if the target crime inherently and necessarily requires two participants to commit it.

Pinkerton Rule

A doctrine holding each co-conspirator criminally liable for substantive offenses committed by fellow conspirators if done in furtherance of the conspiracy and within its foreseeable scope.

Negative Act (Criminal Omission)

Criminal liability grounded on a failure to act when a specific legal duty exists, such as through familial obligation, contract, statute, creating a peril, or voluntary assumption of care.

Eggshell Skull Rule

The legal principle that a wrongdoer takes their victim as they find them; an unexpected vulnerability or pre-existing physical frailty that worsens the injury or triggers death does not relieve the defendant of full liability.

Malum Prohibitum

Conduct that is not inherently immoral or wrong in itself, but is declared unlawful by legislative enactment to maintain public order and safety.

Strict Liability

Crimes that do not require proof of a culpable mental state (mens rea); the prosecution only needs to prove the commission of the prohibited act (actus reus).

M'Naghten Rule (Right-Wrong Test)

An insanity defense test establishing that a defendant is legally insane if a severe mental disease or defect made them unable to understand the nature and quality of their act or unable to distinguish right from wrong regarding the act.

Irresistible Impulse Test

An insanity defense test excusing liability if a mental defect destroyed the defendant's volitional capacity, leaving them completely unable to control their actions despite knowing the act was wrong.

Durham Test

An insanity standard holding that an accused is not criminally responsible if their unlawful act was the product of a mental disease or mental defect.

Settled Insanity

A permanent, fixed mental disease or defect caused by long-term, chronic substance abuse that persists even when the individual is not under the immediate, acute influence of intoxicants.