Criminal Law Notes

Criminal Law

Constitutional Limits on Criminal Law

  • Article 1 requirements:
    • Fair warning: The law must be clear and understandable.
    • Avoid arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement: Laws should not encourage random choices or erratic arrests and convictions.
  • No Ex Post Facto Laws:
    • Prohibits laws that:
      • Make an act criminal when it was first done.
      • Make the crime worse or increase the punishment.
      • Change the rules of evidence.
      • Change the law procedure in a way that deprives the criminal of substantive rights (life, liberty, or happiness).
  • Example of Ex Post Facto Law:
    • If spilling coffee on the governor was not illegal last week, but a new law makes it illegal today, you cannot be arrested for spilling coffee last week.

No Bill of Attainder

  • Definition: A legislative act that inflicts punishment or denies a privilege without a judicial trial.
  • Key Difference from Ex Post Facto: No judicial trial is provided; punishment is directly inflicted.

Theories of Punishment

  • Incapacitation (Restraint): Imprisoning a criminal reduces their ability to cause harm in society.
  • Special Deterrence: Punishments discourage a criminal from committing future crimes.
  • General Deterrence: Punishments discourage others from committing crimes due to fear of similar consequences.
  • Retribution: Punishment reflects society’s outrage and need for revenge.
  • Rehabilitation: Imprisonment includes methods to reform a criminal, enabling them to conform to proper behavior upon return to society.
  • Education: Trials, convictions, and punishments educate the public about the difference between right and wrong.

Elements of Crime

  • All elements must be present for a crime to have occurred.

    • Actus Reus (Guilty Act):

      • Definition: Physical act or unlawful omission by the defendant.

    • Mens Rea (Guilty Mind):

      • Definition: State of mind, intent of the defendant at the time of the act.

    • Concurrence:

      • Definition: Both physical and mental elements must occur at the same time.

    • Harmful Result / Causation:

      • Definition: Factual and proximate harmful result caused by the defendant.
      • Note: Causation is not always present in a criminal case.
      • Causation refers to the relationship between the defendant’s conduct and the result. The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant’s actions led to the alleged harm or injury.
      • Example: Homicide requires the victim to die and the defendant’s act to be the cause.

    • Example: Crimes of receipt of stolen property

      • If defendant received property (act) he/she believes to be stolen (mental) but in fact the item is not stolen, the absence of this element means the defendant is not guilty of the crime.

Types of Intent

  • Specific Intent:
    • Definition: Offender has a purpose or objective; requires mens rea and intentional action.
  • Malicious Intent:
    • Definition: Acts on purpose instead of by accident or thoughtlessness; implies willful bad conduct.
  • General Intent:
    • Definition: Acts intentionally and knowingly, though may not have fully conceived of a purpose; voluntary and deliberate, not accidental or negligent.
  • Reckless Intent:
    • Definition: Consciously disregards the risk to others.
  • Negligent Intent:
    • Definition: Acts unreasonably and risks harming another person when there is a duty to act reasonably; failure to act.
  • Strict Liability:
    • Definition: Offender intent is irrelevant; applies to regulations of public welfare, e.g., serving alcohol to a minor.

Model Penal Code (MPC) – 1962

  • Criminal Law principles and guidelines
  • The MPC is comprised of four parts:
    • (I) general principles of liability;
    • (II) definitions of specific offenses;
    • (III) provisions governing treatment and correction; and
    • (IV) provisions governing the organization of corrections departments and divisions.
  • Knowingly:
    • Definition: An individual is deemed to have acted knowingly in regard to a material element of an offense when:
      • in the event that such element involves the nature of his or her conduct or the circumstances attendant thereto, he or she is aware that the conduct is of such nature or that those circumstances exist; if the element relates to a result of the person's conduct, he or she is conscious of the fact that it is substantially certain that the conduct will precipitate such a result.
    • Knowingly is awareness that results are practically certain to occur. (Model Penal Code)

Definitions from Model Penal Code

  • Purposefully: Having a purpose, intent, manifesting a purpose.
  • Willfully: Deliberately disregard the rules.
  • Recklessly: Acting or done with lack of care or caution; subjective awareness of a risk of harm and an objective and unjustified disregard of that risk.

Criminal Law Case Brief

  • Part 1 Heading
    • Case Name - Robinson v. California
    • Court Name - United State Supreme Court
    • Citation - 82 S.Ct. 1417 (1962)
    • Decision Final Date - 1962
  • Part 2 Facts
    • State the relationship and status of the parties i.e. plaintiff / defendant
    • State legally relevant and procedurally significant facts actions that brought the parties to court
  • Part 3 Procedural History
    • Decisions made in lower court before getting to the appeals level
  • Part 4 Substantive Issue
    • What is the point of law in dispute? Usually in a form of a questions or starts with “Whether.” This is what the parties are asking the court to resolve.
  • Part 5 Procedural Issue
    • This is what the appealing party claims the lower court got wrong. I.e. incorrect ruling on evidence, improper jury instructions, granting summary judgment when a genuine issue of material facts existed, miscarry of justice.
  • Part 6 Disposition / Judgment
    • This is the court's final decision usually in a form of Affirmed, Reverse, or Reverse with instructions.
  • Part 7 Holding
    • This is a positive or negative statement from the court regarding the final decision on the substantive issue.
  • Part 8 Rule of Law
    • The court will cite a statute, case law, regulations, or a synthesis of case law, which the court applied in order to determine the substantive rights of the parties.
  • Part 9 Reasoning
    • This is the court's analysis of “why” it is ruling this way. The court will apply the rule of law or legal reasoning to the facts of the case.
  • Part 10 Concurring / Dissenting Opinions
    • In cases, such as Supreme Court cases, the cases are heard by more than one judge. Many times, judges do not agree on the outcome of the cases. When a judge disagrees, he will write a dissenting opinion of why the judge believes the court ruled incorrect. When a judge agrees with the reasoning of the majority but states an opinion based on his/her own opinion.

IRAC Method

  • Method of writing a law analysis essay
    • I = Issue - What is the issue of the case? Usually starts with a question
    • R = Rule - Defines the legal rules that are relevant to the question
    • A = Analysis - Apply the legal rule to the facts of the questions
    • C = Conclusion This is how you think the court will rule.