Crim Law Exam 1

Plaintiff

The side that files charges, including prosecutors, state attorneys, United States attorneys (federal prosecutors), and referred to as Pi.

Defendant

The side being accused or filed against, referred to as Delta, represented by a defense attorney or public defender.

Charged

Formally accused of a crime.

Convicted

The end of the process where a person is found or pleads guilty.

Crimes

Originate from a list of can'ts and musts applied to everyone that injure another individual and the whole community, where prosecutions are brought by the state and convicted offenders pay money to the state or serve time in its custody, expressing community condemnation.

Torts

Actions brought by private parties that injure individuals and the community where losing defendants pay money to compensate the plaintiff, and the plaintiff bears the burden to prove responsibility by a preponderance of the evidence.

Mala in se

Behavior that is inherently wrong or evil, such as rape and murder.

Mala prohibita

Behaviors that are criminal only because of a statute or ordinance, such as traffic violations.

Felonies

Crimes punishable by death or confinement of a year or more and a fine.

Misdemeanors

Crimes punishable by a fine and/or confinement in a local jail, generally up to one year.

State Criminal Codes

A primary source of criminal law.

The Model Penal Code (MPC)

A source used to help reform law definitions and provide consistency across state lines as a common denominator.

Municipal Ordinances

A local source of criminal law.

The U.S. Criminal Code

Federal criminal laws written by Congress.

Administrative Agency Crimes

Crimes regulated by bodies like the IRS regarding taxes.

Informal Discretionary Law Making

Lawmaking carried out discretionarily by prosecutors and sometimes police.

Principle of Legality

The rule that there is no crime without law and no punishment without law, banning ex post facto laws under Article I of the Constitution.

Ex Post Facto Laws

Retroactive laws that criminalize an act after the fact, increase punishment after the fact, or take away a defense after the fact.

Void for Vagueness Doctrine

A doctrine taking aim at laws that fail to give fair warning and allow arbitrary/discriminatory law enforcement, violating the 5th and 14th amendments.

Rule of Lenity

The requirement for courts to resolve ambiguities in criminal statutes in favor of the defendant.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

The highest standard of proof required in criminal cases where a reasonable doubt exists when a factfinder is not firmly convinced of guilt.

Clear and Convincing Evidence

A standard of proof meaning it is "highly probable" that claims are true, used in cases like taking kids from parents or will disputes.

Preponderance of the Evidence

The standard in most civil/tort cases representing a 51% tipping of the scales.

Burden of Production

The responsibility to produce evidence in your favor, such as raising evidence for self-defense.

Burden of Persuasion

The obligation to persuade the factfinder regarding an issue or defense.

Mens Rea

The "guilty mind" mental element of a crime that forms a broad spectrum of mental attitudes.

Motive

The underlying reason for an action; unlike intent, motive does not have to be proven in court.

Circumstantial Evidence

Indirect evidence that allows a reasonable inference of fact.

Subjective Fault

Criminal intent linked with immorality that requires a "bad mind" (the worst type of crimes).

Objective Fault

Lower-level culpability crimes involving recklessness where there is no bad mind, judged by what a "reasonable person" should have known.

Strict Liability

Crimes where no mens rea is required; if you commit the act, you are guilty without needing to prove anything else.

General Intent

The intent to commit a criminal act that applies across the board.

Specific Intent

General intent combined with the specific intent to cause a harmful result.

Purposely (MPC Level)

Acting with the "conscious object" to commit a crime.

Knowingly (MPC Level)

Acting with awareness and being practically certain that something is going to happen.

Recklessly (MPC Level)

Consciously creating a risk while not expecting or not caring about the harm caused.

Negligently (MPC Level)

Unconsciously creating a risk using a "reasonable person standard."

Liability Without Fault (Strict Liability)

Crimes based on voluntary action alone that make accidental injuries a crime where the prosecution proves only that a voluntary act caused harm.

Affirmative Defense

A defense like insanity where the defendant has the burden of production and persuasion using a preponderance of the evidence.

Test for Insanity in Indiana

A defense requiring proof by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant suffers from a mental illness which rendered them unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct at the time of the offense.

GBMI (Guilty But Mentally Ill)

A verdict providing evaluation and treatment for an illness while maintaining the same criminal standard for a conviction of guilt.

NGRI (Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity)

A finding that a defendant is mentally ill and either dangerous or gravely disabled, resulting in an acquittal or specialized commitment rather than traditional prison.

Constitutional Democracy

A system where the majority cannot make a crime out of what the Constitution protects as a fundamental right.

Ex Post Facto Law

A retroactive law that criminalizes a past act, increases punishment after the fact, or takes away a previously available defense.

Void for Vagueness Doctrine

A rule stating laws are void if they forbid conduct in terms so uncertain that ordinary people must guess at their meaning, violating due process.

Rule of Lenity

The requirement that courts resolve every ambiguity in a criminal statute in favor of the defendant.

Presumption of Innocence

The principle that every criminal defendant is presumed innocent from the time they are charged until convicted.

Burden of Production

The rule making defendants responsible for presenting initial evidence in support of an affirmative justification or excuse defense.

Burden of Persuasion

The obligation to prove a defense by a preponderance of the evidence (more than 50%).

Fourth Amendment

Protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures and establishes a fundamental right to privacy.

Probable Cause

A reasonable basis to believe a crime has been committed and that evidence is present at the location to be searched.

Specificity / Particularity

The requirement that a warrant must describe the place to be searched and items to be seized to prevent general, exploratory searches.

Good Faith Exception

A rule stating that evidence obtained via a defective warrant is still admissible if law enforcement acted in good faith believing it was valid.

Automobile Exception

Allows police to search a vehicle without a warrant if they have probable cause that it contains evidence of a crime.

Exigent Circumstances

Emergency cases where immediate action is necessary to prevent danger, escape, or destruction of evidence.

Search Incident to Lawful Arrest

The right of police to search a lawfully arrested person and the immediate area within their control.

Plain View Doctrine

Allows seizure of items immediately apparent as contraband if an officer is lawfully present.

Inventory Searches

Standardized procedures to catalog contents of lawfully impounded property to protect owners' property and ensure safety.

Border Searches

Searches conducted at international borders requiring no warrant or probable cause.

Custodial Interrogation

Questioning initiated by law enforcement after a person has been taken into custody or deprived of freedom in a significant way.

Miranda Warnings

The required constitutional warnings given before custodial interrogation informing suspects of their right to remain silent, that statements can be used against them, and of their right to retained or appointed counsel.

Criminal Liability

Conduct that unjustifiably and inexcusably inflicts or threatens substantial harm and qualifies for punishment after passing through analytical steps.

Actus Reus

The physical element of a crime consisting of all crimes having to include a voluntary criminal act.

Mens Rea

Criminal intent required in some crimes.

Concurrence

The requirement that criminal intent must trigger the criminal act.

Attendant Circumstances

Facts or conditions connected with or relevant to acts, intentions, causes, or results.

Result Crimes (Bad Result Crimes)

Crimes requiring a voluntary act, mental element, circumstantial elements, causation, and a criminal harm (e.g., homicide).

Corpus Delicti

"The body of the crime," referring to the body of victims in homicides or the elements of the crime in other offenses.

Manifest criminality

The requirement that intentions must turn into external deeds so there is no doubt of the criminal nature of the act.

Automatism

Bodily movements while unconscious or otherwise not a product of the conscious/habitual effort of the actor.

Status Crimes

Unconstitutional laws punishing someone for who they are (their personal condition or status) rather than what they do.

Criminal Omissions

Failures to act when there is a legal duty to act, broken down into failures to report and failures to intervene.

Legal Duty

An obligation enforced by law (created by statutes, contracts, or special relationships) rather than just a moral duty.

American Bystander Rule

The rule that there is no legal duty to rescue or summon help for someone in danger.

Legal Fiction

Pretending something is a fact when it is not because there is a good reason for doing so.

Actual Possession

Physical control of banned items on one's person.

Constructive Possession

Items not on one's physical person but located in places under one's control (such as a car or apartment).

Knowing Possession

Possessors are explicitly aware of what they possess.

Mere Possession

Possessing an item without knowing that you possess it.

Strict Liability

Liability based on voluntary action alone without requiring proof of mens rea, designed to protect public health and safety.

Factual Cause ("But For" Cause)

The empirical question of whether an actor's conduct triggered a series of events that ended in causing harm, acting as a sine qua non cause.

Proximate (Legal) Cause

A subjective question of fairness asking whether it is fair to blame a defendant for the harm triggered by their action.

Intervening Cause

An event that comes between the initial act in a sequence and the ultimate criminal result.

Ignorance of Law (Ignorance Maxim)

The principle that everyone is presumed to know the law.

Mistake of Fact

A failure of proof defense where a mistake prevents the formation of the required mens rea (purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently).

Indiana Insanity Defense Standard

The requirement that a defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they suffered from a mental disease or defect which rendered them unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct.

Demeanor Evidence

Circumstantial evidence of a defendant's actions and statements before, during, and after a crime used to infer their mental state.

Dissolution of Demeanor Evidence's Probative Value

The legal principle established in cases like Payne where a well-documented lifelong history of severe mental illness and unanimous expert testimony strips pre-crime or post-crime demeanor evidence of its typical probative value regarding sanity.

Right-Wrong Test (McNaughtan Rule)

An insanity test focusing exclusively on reason and cognition, asking whether a mental disease caused a defect preventing the defendant from knowing the nature and quality of the act or that it was wrong.

Irresistible Impulse Test

An insanity test focusing on a defendant's power to control themselves and resist impulses.

Mental Disease

Refers clinically to major psychoses such as paranoia and schizophrenia.

Mental Defect

Refers to mental retardation or brain damage severe enough to make it impossible to know what you are doing or that it is wrong.

Cognition

Intellectual awareness.

Diminished Capacity

A failure of proof defense where a defendant attempts to prove they were incapable of forming the requisite specific intent of the charged crime, making them innocent of that crime but potentially guilty of a lesser one.

Excuse of Age

Legal categories defining criminal capacity based on age (under 7 has no capacity; 7–14 is presumed to have no capacity unless overcome; over 14 has adult capacity).

Waiver to Adult Criminal Court

The process where juvenile court gives up jurisdiction and transfers a juvenile case to adult criminal court via judicial, prosecutorial, or legislative means.

Defense of Duress

An excuse used when a defendant is forced to commit a crime through threats of death or serious bodily injury.

Involuntary Intoxication

Intoxication consumed against one's will or through medical misunderstanding, serving as an excuse to criminal liability.

Subjective Entrapment Test

A test examining the predisposition of a defendant to commit a crime to determine if the criminal intent originated improperly from the government.