Crimes Against Person

Elements of Crime
Actus Reus
Mens Rea
Concurrence
Causation
Forms of Homicide Mens Rea
Intent to Kill specific intent
Intent to Cause Serious Bodily Harm
Depraved Heart
Felony Murder BARKK
o Burglary, Arson, Rape, Robbery, Kidnapping
Deadly Weapons Doctrine inference of intent to kill is raised through
the intentional use of any instrument which is calculated to produce
death or serious bodily injury
Intent to Cause Serious Bodily Harm must be proved by examination
of all the surrounding circumstances
Depraved Heart Murder unintentional killing resulting from conduct
involving a wanton indifference to human life and conscious disregard
of an unreasonable risk of death or serious bodily injury
Felony Murder killing proximately caused during the commission or
attempted commission of a serious or inherently dangerous felony
Includes intentional and accidental killings, as well as liability for
the acts of ones accomplices
Underlying felony must be independent of the homicide
Dead person must not be a felon
First-Degree Murder intent-to-kill murder committed with
premeditation and deliberation
Lying in wait, poison, terrorism, or torture
Second-Degree Murder any murder that does not meet the requisite
elements of first-degree murder.
Example: defendants mens rea is intent to inflict serious bodily
injury
Voluntary Manslaughter

Intentional killing mitigated by adequate provocation or other

circumstances negating malice
Adequate provocation, measured objectively, must be such that
a reasonable person would lose self-control
Imperfect self-defense may mitigate murder to voluntary
manslaughter where a defendant was either at fault in starting
an altercation, or unreasonably, but honestly believed that harm
was imminent or that deadly force was necessary

Involuntary Manslaughter
Unintentional killing resulting without malice aforethought
caused by either reckless or criminal negligence or during the
commission or attempted commission of an unlawful act
Criminal negligence requires that the defendants conduct
creates a high degree of risk of death or serious injury beyond
the tort standard of ordinary negligence
Misdemeanor- manslaughter
Assault and Battery
Criminal Battery
Intentional or reckless (or criminally negligent), unlawful
application of force to the person of the victim
Aggravated Batter
Intentionally and knowingly causes great bodily harm permanent
disability or disfigurement, or uses a deadly weapon, or when the
victim is pregnant and the offender knows of the pregnancy
Assault
When a reasonable person would not expect imminent bodily
harm, there is no criminal assault
Aggravated Assault
Assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill or with intent
to commit a felony
Kidnapping
An unlawful restraint of a persons liberty by force or show of
force so as to send the victim to another location
Rape
Unlawful sexual intercourse by a male person with a female
person without her consent

Crimes Against Property

Larceny
Trespassory taking and carrying away of the tangible personal
property of another with the intent to permanently deprive the
owner thereof.
If at the time of taking, defendant intends to return the property
to the vicim unconditionally and within a reasonable time, there
is no intent to permanently deprive
Embezzlement
Fraudulent conversion or misappropriation of the property of
another by one who is already in lawful possession
Lawful possession as opposed to custody
Robbery
Taking from the person or presence of the victim, accomplished
either by force or violence; or by intimidation or the threat of
violence
Obtaining Property by False Pretenses
False representation of a present or past material fact by the
defendant, which causes the victim to pass title to his property to
the defendant who knows his representation to be false
Larceny by Trick
Obtains possession of personal property by another by means of
representation or promise that he knows is false at the time he
takes possession
Receiving Stolen Property
Defendant must either know or actually believe the property is
stolen
Burglary
Breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the
nighttime.
Modern Rule: does not have to be at night
Arson
Malicious burning of the dwelling of another
Inchoate Crimes

Solicitation: enticing, advising, inciting, inducing, urging, or otherwise

encouraging another to commit a felony or breach of the peace
Attempt: specific intent to bring about a criminal result, and a
significant over act in furtherance of that intent.
Conspiracy:
Agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or
to commit a lawful act by criminal means
Intent to achieve the obejective of the agreement
Overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy
Majority: No one person conspiracies
Parties to Crime; Accomplice Liability
Accomplice
Criminally liable as an accomplice if he gives assistance or
encouragement , or fails to act where he has a legal duty to
oppose the crime of another, and purposefully intends to
effectuate commission of the crime
Responsible for criminal acts of another whom he aided, abetted
or facilitated, provided the criminal consequences are reasonable
foreseeable in terms of the acts the defendant intended to aid or
abet.
One who aids, abets, counsels, or otherwise encourages the
commission of a felony, but is not present at the scene, is guilty
as an accessory before the fact
Defenses
Insanity:
MNaghten Test
o At time of act, laboring under such a defect of reason from
a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and
quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, not to
know that what he was doing was wrong
Model Penal Code Test
o At the time of conduct, as a result of mental disease or
defect, he lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the
criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the
requirements of law
Irresistible Impulse Test

o Had a mental disease that kept him from controlling his

conduct
Durham Rule
o Unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect
(would not have been committed but for the defect or
disease).

Diminished Capacity
Short of insanity. Defendant did not have a state of mind that is
an element of the offense
Intoxication
Voluntary or involuntary intoxication is a defense to a crime
when it negates the existence of an element of the crime
Justification
Where an act is justified, no crime has been committed
Self-Defense
Reasonable belief that he is in imminent danger of unlawful
bodily harm, may use the amount of force in self-defense that is
reasonably necessary to prevent such harm, unless is the initial
aggressor
Deadly force is that which threatens death or serious bodily harm
Defense of third person
Defense of property: reasonable non-deadly force
Necessity: reasonable force is justified to avoid imminent injury
resulting from natural forces or where an individual reasonably
believes that his criminal conduct is necessary to avoid a greater harm
Duress:
Entrapment