Criminal Law Flashcards
(23 cards)
Murder
An unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.
Express Malice Aforethought
The intent to kill; the conscious desire to bring about a death.
Implied Malice Aforethought
The intent to commit the underlying act.
Carroll Approach
Premeditation means intent.
Guthrie Approach
Premeditation requires actual deliberation, meaning defendant must have time to deliberate and actual deliberation on the intent to kill.
Defense of Provocation
A murder committed with intent to kill, where the killer has a partial defense of provocation can have the crime “knocked down” from murder to manslaughter. There must be an adequate provocation, the event gave rise to a heat of passion, and no adequate cooling time.
Reckless Manslaughter
A killing and a substantial, unjustifiable risk with conscious disregard of the risk; the killer must be aware of the risk.
Extreme Reckless Manslaughter
A killing and a substantial, unjustifiable risk with callous disregard.
Felony Murder
A killing in the course of committing a felony.
Misdemeanor Manslaughter
A killing in the course of committing a misdemeanor.
Murder With The Intent to Inflict Serious Bodily Harm
A killing with the intent to inflict serious bodily harm in which the harm is grave, not trivial. The harm created a substantial risk of death or cause serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of bodily member or organ.
Unconsciousness Defense
In order to use the unconsciousness defense, which is a complete defense, one must be unconscious. If one is not aware of what one is doing, then his or her action is not voluntary.
Act Element
An act is required and it must be voluntary.
Purposely
Wanted to do it.
Knowingly
Awareness 99% it was going to happen.
Recklessly
Known of danger/risk
Negligently
Should have of known.
Actual Causation
If one of the defendant’s actions is in the chain of events, then their conduct is an actual cause. But for the defendant’s actions, then action lead to the ultimate result.
Proximate causation
If the defendant’s action is reasonably foreseeable meaning it would lead to the result, the defendant’s conduct is the proximate cause; must have both actual cause and proximate cause for defendant’s action to be the cause of the result.
An Intervening Cause
A cause between the actor’s act and the ultimate result. If the intervening cause is “superceding”, it “break” the chain of causation, and that let
s the defendant off of the causal hook.
An INtervening Human Actor
A human act between the defendant act and the result. If the intervening actor is mistaken, determine if the intervening actor’s act was superceding; if superceding, it breaks the chain of causation and lets the defendant off the causal hook.
Negligent Homicide
A person commits negligent homicide if he causes another person’s death with criminal negligence. A person is criminally negligent if his conduct involves a substantial + unjustifiable risk that he should have perceived.
Homicide
The killing of one human being by another.
