Criminal Law

Modern Role of Criminal Statutes:

Principle of Legality: Void for Vagueness:

5th and 14th amendment require no criminal penalty be imposed
without fair notice that conduct is now forbidden.
Fair Warning: statute must give person of ordinary intelligence
fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden by the statute
Ambiguous and Discriminatory Enforcement Must be Avoided:
statute must not encourage ambiguous or erratic arrests and
convictions
Principle of Lenity: if law is ambiguous in favor of def.
No Ex Post Facto Laws:
Makes criminal an act that when does was not criminal
Aggravate a crime or increase the punishment
Change rules of evidence to the detriment of crim. Def.
Alter the law of crim. procedure to deprive crim. Def. of
substantive right

Values of Statutory Clarity:

Common Law v. Modal Penal Code v. Statute:

Statutory Interpretation: state legislature is the primary source of

criminal law

Actus Reus: physical act (unlawful omission) by def.

A. Voluntary Act: conscious exercise of will.
Act is defined as bodily movement
Involuntary act: not product of actor’s determination
Reflexive or convulsive
Unconscious or asleep
Model Penal Code: *2.01, (1), (2)
2.01 (1) a person is not guilty of an offense unless his liability is based
on conduct which includes a voluntary act or the omission to perform
an act of which he is physically capable
2.01 (2) The following are not voluntary acts within the meaning of
this section:
a. reflex or convulsion
b. bodily movement during unconsciousness or sleep
c. conduct during hypnoisi or resulting from hypnosis suggestion
d. bodily movement that otherwise is not a product of the effort
or dertermination of the actor, either conscious or habitual
 B. Omission to Act: Failure to act if 3 requirements are satisfied
1. Legal Duty to Act
By statute
Contract
Relationship (parent, spouse)
Voluntary Assumption of Care
Creation of Peril by Def.
2. Knowledge of Facts Giving Rise to Duty (must
know the act is happening to know they have
duty) (lifeguard exception because should be
aware)
3. Reasonably Possible to Perform (or obtain the help
of others in performing it)
Distinguishing Acts from Omissions: Duty to Act??

C. Social Harm: wants to punish people for doing social harm

Result crime- intend causation and achieve the result
Attendant Circumstances: condition must be present
Conduct- just doing act (DUI)
MPC * 2.01 (3) Liability for the commission of an offense may
not be based on an omission unaccompanied by action
unless:
a. The omission is expressly made suffiecient by the law
defining the offense, or
b. A duty to perfrom the omitted acti is otherwise imposed
by law

Mens Rea: intent/ guilty mind

A. Nature of Mens Rea: normally required to distinguish between

inadvertent or accidental acts vs. acts performed with a ‘guilty mind.’
Guilty mind is more blameworthy and arguably be deterred.

B. General Issues of Proving Culpability:

1. Intent
Specific Intent: definition of crime requires doing act
and doing it with specific intent or objective. Meet statute
1. need of proof (or manner of which done can
provide circumstantial evidence
2. applicability of certain defenses ( voluntary
intoxication and unreasonable mistake of fact
apply to specific intent crimes)
 General Intent: (intent to do Actus Reas) Awareness of
factors constituting a crime: Defendant must be aware that
she is acting in an unlawful way and that attendant
circumstances required by the crime are present
Jury can infer required general intent from doing
act
Transferred Intent: intending a harmful result/action to a person or
object, in trying to carry out intent caused similar harmful result to
another person or object. Does not apply to attempt.

2.MPC *2.02 Minimum Requirements of Culpabiity. A person is not

guilty of an act unless he acted purposely, knowingly, recklessly or
negligently, with respect to each material element of the offense.
a. Purposely.
(i) if the element involves the nature of his conduct or a
result therof, it is his conscious object to engage in conduct of that
nature or to cause such a result; and
(ii) if the element involves the attendant circumstances,
he is aware of the existence of such circumstances or he believes or
hopes that they exist.
b. Knowingly
(i) if the element involves the nature of his conduct or the
attendant circumstances, he is aware that his conduct is of that nature
or that such circumstances exist; an
(ii) if the element involves a result of his conduct, he is
aware that it is preactically certain that his conduct will cause such a
result
c. Recklessly. He consciously disregards a substantial and
unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his
conduct. Its disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of
conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the actor’s
situation.
d. Negligently. He should be aware of a substantial and
unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his
conduct. The actor’s failure to perceive it involves a gross deviation
from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in
the actor’s situation.

3Knowledge of Attendant Circumstances (Willful Blindness

Problem)

Criminal Code: Knowingly excludes cases in which the fact at

issue would have been know had not the person ‘willfully’ shut his eyes
in order to avoid knowing—limits knowingly to actual fact—strict
statute enforcement
 MPC: does not exclude those cases- where knowledge of the
existence of particular fact is an element of an offense- knowledge is
established if person is aware of high probability (like
restatement of reckless)
MPC * 2.02 (7) Requirement of Knowledge Satisfied by
Knowledge of High Probability. When knowledge of the existence of a
particular fact is an element of an offense, such knowledge is
established if a person is aware of a high probability of its existence,
unless he actually believes that it does not exist.

Problems in Statutory Interpretation

Strict Liability Offenses “Public Welfare Offenses”: one that

does not require awreness of all factors constituting the crime.
General requirement of state of mind is not abandoned with all
elements but only with regard to one or some of the elements.
Regulatory Offenses: involve low penalty and not regarded by
community as involving moral impropriety. More concerned with
general public than punishing individual
Certain defenses, such as mistake of fact are not available.
If no mental state is mentioned then court can infer mens rea,
especially if statute is from traditional common law offense. Also look
at length of sentence to see what legislature wanted for knowledge

Causation: Factual + proximate cause (must be direct

natural result)

A. Actual Cause (Cause in Fact) – when crime is required to have

conduct and also specified result of that conduct, def. conduct
must have both the cause in fact and proximate cause of
specified result.
BUT FOR test: result would not have happened but
for def. conduct
But for Def.’s conduct would this death have occurred at this TIME and
DATE?
No= Actual causation satisfied

B. Proximate Cause: arises only when victim’s death occurs

because of def.’s acts, but in a manner not intended or
anticipated by the def.
Superseding Factor can intervene and “Break the chain of
‘proximate cause’”
Foreseeable consequence: Defendant is responsible for
all result as natural and probable consequence of his conduct,
 even if he did not anticipate the precise manner in which they
would occur.

General Nature of Fairness: Should this person be held responsible for

result?

Rules of Causation:
A. Inevitable Result: hasten (speeds up) inevitable result is
nevertheless a legal cause of that result ( A dies sooner but
would have died- B still liable of death)
B. Simultaneous Acts: acts by two people together causes death
C. Preexisting Condition: ‘takes the victim as he finds him’
victim’s preexisting condition makes him more susceptible to
death does not break the chain of causation.
D. Intervening Acts:
1. Act of Nature
2. Act by 3rd Party. (gross negligent care)
3. Acts by the victim:
Burglary
MPC * 221.0
1. Occupied Structure: any structure, vehicle or place adapted for
the overnight accommodation of person, or for carrying on
business therein, whether or not a person is actually present
2. Night: the perios between thirty minutes past sunset and thirty
minutes before sunrise
MPC *221.1 (no breaking required)
1. Burglary Defined (3rd Degree conviction):
a. Enters
b. Building or occupied structure
c. Purpose to commit a crime
It is a affirmative defense to prosecution for burglary that the building
or structure was abandoned.
2. Grading: Burglary is a felony of the 2nd degree if perpetrated
in the dwelling of another at night, or if, in the course of
committing the offense, the actor:
a. Purposely, knowingly, recklessly inflicts or attempts to
inflict bodily injury on anyone or
b. Is armed with explosives or a deadly weapon.
Common Law:
Elements: Actus Reas
a. a breaking
b. and entry
Attendant Circumstances
c. Of the dwelling
d. Of another
e. At nighttime
 f. With the intent of committing a felony therein.
A. Breaking Required
a. Actual Breaking: requires some use of force to gain
entry, but minimal force is sufficient
b. Constructive Breaking: gaining entry by means of
fraud, threat or intimidation, or by use of the chimney
c. Requirement of Trespass—vs. Consent to enter: if
defendant had the consent of resident/work hours(keys),
his use of force to gain entry is not a breaking.
B. Entry Required: entry is made by placing a portion of the body
iside the structure. Insertions of a tool or inanimate object into
the structure is entry if it is inserted for the purpose of
accomplishing the felony.
C. Dwelling: Used for sleeping purposes.
D. Of another: Occupancy is Determinative: the structure be
used as a dwelling by someone other than the defendant
(Occupancy rather than ownership is material—owner can
burglarize renters property)
E. Requirement of Nighttime: the period during which the
countenance of a person could not be discerned by natural light
(see my handout for better meaning)
F. Required Intent: Intent to Commit a Felony at Time of
Entry: Def. must have intended to commit a felony, not
necessary that this be carried out. It is essential that intent exist
at the time of entry: if its formed after entry, burglary is not
committed.