Common Law Definitions

Question 1

Actus Reus

Answer 1

Consists of (1) a voluntary act (or failure to act); (2) that causes; (3) social harm

Question 2

There is no general duty to act unless:

Answer 2

(1) Statutory Obligation
(2) Status Relationship
(3) Contractual Duty
(4) Voluntary Assumption of Duty
(5) Creation of Peril (if caused risk or harm)

Question 3

Mens Rea

Answer 3

The particular mental state provided for in the definition of an offense

Question 4

Intentionally

Answer 4

A person intentionally causes harm of an offense if (1) it is his desire to cause the social harm; or (2) he acts with knowledge that the social harm is virtually certain to occur as a result of his conduct

Question 5

Knowingly

Answer 5

A person has knowledge of a material fact if he: (1) is aware of the fact; or (2) correctly believes that the fact exists

Question 6

Willfully

Answer 6

An act done with a bad purpose; an intentional violation of a known legal duty or purpose to disobey the law

Question 7

Negligently

Answer 7

A gross deviation from the standard of reasonable care, taking into account the gravity of the harm that foreseeably would result from the defendant’s conduct, the probability of such harm occurring, and the burden or loss to the defendant’s desisting from the risky conduct

Question 8

Recklessly

Answer 8

The actor disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk of which he was aware

Question 9

Strict Liability

Answer 9

Authorizes conviction of a morally innocent person for violation of an offense, even though the crime, by definition, requires proof of mens rea

Question 10

Criminal Causation

Answer 10

Actual causation + Legal Causation

Question 11

Common Law Legal Causation

Answer 11

“But For” Test + Was there a dependent intervening cause

Question 12

Dependent Intervening Cause

Answer 12

A foreseeable intervening cause reasonably related to the defendant’s conduct

Question 13

Independent Intervening Cause

Answer 13

An unforeseeable intervening cause not reasonably related to the defendant’s conduct

Question 14

Common Law Year and a Day Rule

Answer 14

Defendant can’t be charged with homicide unless victim died within a year and day

Question 15

Concurrent Causation

Answer 15

Two independent acts at (or near) the same time that would each independently cause the result

Question 16

Negligent Medical Care

Answer 16

Common law considered medical care as a normal and foreseeable response to a wound/injury and was only intervening if it was “outrageously improper or inappropriate to be regarded as abnormal.” Merely negligent medical care is not outrageously improper or inappropriate

Question 17

Complicity

Answer 17

A theory of criminal liability, not a standalone crime

Question 18

Principal in the First Degree

Answer 18

Person who with the requisite mens rea
(1) Physically commits the acts that constitute the offense; or
(2) Commits the offense by use of an “innocent instrumentality” or “innocent human agent”

Question 19

Principal in the Second Degree

Answer 19

Person who is guilty by reason of having intentionally assisted in the commission of the crime in the presence, either actual or constructive, of the principal in the first degree

Question 20

Accessory Before the Fact

Answer 20

Does not differ from a principal in the second degree, except that he is not actually constructively present when the crime is committed

Question 21

Accessory After the Fact

Answer 21

One who, with actual knowledge of another’s guilt, intentionally assists the felon to avoid arrest, trial, or conviction

Question 22

Mens Rea of Accomplice Liability

Answer 22

Intent to assist a principal actor in committing the target act, AND
Intent that the principal actually commit that act

Question 23

Merger of Accomplice Liability

Answer 23

Modern codes merge principals in the first degree, second degree, and accomplices before the fact

Question 24

To establish mens rea for accomplice liability

Answer 24

Prosecution must establish the defendant actually aided, abetted, or encouraged the commission of the offense

Question 25

Vicarious Liability

Answer 25

If a corporation is held criminally responsible, it is generally for public welfare or regulatory offenses. Generally strict liability

Question 26

Common Law Actus Reus of Attempt Analysis

Answer 26

1. Physical Proximity 2. Dangerous proximity 3. Indispensable Element 4. Probable Desistance 5. Abnormal Step 5. Res Ipsa loquitur/Unequivocality Test

Question 27

Physical Proximity (Attempt Analysis)

Answer 27

An actor's conduct must approach sufficiently near to the last act or be a subsequent step in a direct movement towards the commission of the offense after the preparations are made

Question 28

Dangerous Proximity (Attempt Analysis)

Answer 28

When an actor's conduct is in "dangerous proximity to success" or when it is "so near to the result that the danger of success is very great"

Question 29

Indispensable Element (Attempt Analysis)

Answer 29

Any indispensable aspect of the criminal endeavor over which the actor has not yet acquired control. An actor who does not yet possess a necessary instrumentality for the crime has not yet crossed the line from preparation to perpetration

Question 30

Probable Desistance (Attempt Analysis)

Answer 30

The actor reached a point where it was unlikely that he would have voluntarily desisted from his effort to commit the crime

Question 31

Abnormal Step (Attempt Analysis)

Answer 31

When an actor takes a series of steps in preparation for a crime, then takes a step that a normal noncriminal person would have come to their good senses and held back from taking

Question 32

Res Ipsa/Unequivocality (Attempt Analysis)

Answer 32

An attempt occurs when a person's conduct, standing alone, unambiguously manifests her criminal intent

Question 33

MPC Abandonment

Answer 33

Accepts abandonment as an affirmative defense. Renunciation and abandonment must be a complete and voluntary renunciation not motivated by probability of detection

Question 34

Common Law Impossibility

Answer 34

Legal impossibility is a defense, factual impossibility is not *MPC does not recognize legal impossibility as a defense

Question 35

Conspiracy

Answer 35

An agreement, express or implied, between two or more persons to commit a criminal act or series of criminal acts, or to accomplish a legal act by unlawful means *No act in furtherance needs to be proved

Question 36

Homicide

Answer 36

Killing of a human being by another human being

Question 37

Criminal Homicide

Answer 37

A killing without justification or excuse

Question 38

Assault

Answer 38

An attempted battery or the intentional creation of the imminent apprehension of a battery

Question 39

Battery

Answer 39

The harmful or offensive touching of another person

Question 40

Stalking

Answer 40

Defendant's course of conduct is aimed at a specific person, the conduct causes fear in that person, it happens at least twice, requires some credible threat, and must allow threats implied by conduct

Question 41

Common Law Self-Defense

Answer 41

Needs to establish: 1. defendant's reasonable belief that 2. the conduct of another person poses a threat of death or great bodily injury; and 3. that such harm is imminent; so that 4. the use of deadly force is necessary to protect the defendant

Question 42

Castle Doctrine

Answer 42

No duty to retreat in your own home

Question 43

Aggressor Rule

Answer 43

A person who is the original aggressor cannot invoke self-defense

Question 44

Defense of Others

Answer 44

A person is justified in using force to protect a third party from unlawful use of force by an aggressor. The intervenor may use force and to the extent that the third party would apparently be justified in using force to protect themself

Question 45

Necessity

Answer 45

Allowed under common law only when facing imminent injury with no viable alternative other than violation of the law

Question 46

Voluntary Intoxication

Answer 46

Not a defense to general intent crimes, is a defense to specific intent crimes

Question 47

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity

Answer 47

Implies that the prosecution proved all of the elements of the crime, including the defendant's mens rea, beyond a reasonable doubt, and that all of the defendant's non-insanity defenses were rejected, but that the accused was insane at the time of the crime

Question 48

M'Naghten Test

Answer 48

At the time of the act, the party accused of laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind that 1. he did not know the nature and quality of what he was doing; or, 2. he did not know he was doing wrong

Question 49

Theft by False Pretenses

Answer 49

Victim intended to transfer ownership of money to the accused

Question 50

Larceny by Trick

Answer 50

If defendant obtains possession of property for a specific purpose but the owner does not give up title

Question 51

Cash

Answer 51

Does not pass if the person is to spend it only for a particular purpose

Question 52

Larceny

Answer 52

Wrongful taking and carrying away of personal property in the possession of another person, without consent, with the intent to convert it or deprive the possessor of the property permanently

Question 53

Embezzlement

Answer 53

When a person fraudulently converted the property of another person while in lawful possession of that property

Question 54

False Pretenses

Answer 54

When a person knowingly misrepresents material facts to defraud another person giving him or her title to that person's property

Question 55

Receiving Stolen Property

Answer 55

When a person gains control over property believing that it was obtained criminally, intending to deprive the owner of his or her interest in it permanently, did not apply if the property was not actually stolen (but if person believed it to be stolen likely guilty of attempted receipt of stolen property)

Question 56

Robbery

Answer 56

Wrongful taking and carrying away of personal property in the possession of another person, through the use or threat of violence or force, with the intent to convert it or deprive the possessor permanently

Question 57

Carjacking

Answer 57

Aggravated form of robbery where the victim's car is taken by force or fear

Question 58

Burglary

Answer 58

When a person broke and entered into another person's dwelling at night with the specific intent to commit a felony inside

Question 59

Common Law Bilateral Conspiracy Approach

Answer 59

Requires at least two people in actual agreement

Question 60

Duress

Answer 60

1. Another person threatened to kill or grievously injure the actor or a third party, particularly a near relative 2. The actor reasonably believed that the threat was genuine 3. The threat was “present, imminent, and impending” at the time of the criminal act. 4. There was no reasonable escape from the threat except through compliance with the demands. 5. The actor was not at fault for exposing himself to the threat.