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Criminal Law - Coggle Diagram

- - - - To convict, the government has the burden of proving every element of every offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
        
        Circumstantial evidence alone cannot be the basis of a conviction UNLESS there is a reasonable hypothesis of guilt. (reasonable hypothesis of innocence and guilt cannot be equal. Does something tip the scale?). Think of the drunk driver case. The court determined there was no reasonable hypothesis of innocence by analyzing the surrounding circumstances--someone called about car driving erratically, later stages of drinking, etc.)
  - - - Due Process Clause requires the prosecutor to persuade the factfinder “beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged.”
        
        The Ex Post Facto clause of the Constitution prohibits retroactive application of criminal legislation and legislative expansion of criminal statutes.
  - - - voluntary
        
        Only voluntary acts can be criminalized. Voluntary DOES NOT mean intent. (someone who robs a bank because his life is under threat does so intentionally, but not voluntarily). One definition of voluntary is: one is responsible only for those consequences that are caused by his actions, not for things in which his body is causally implicated.
        
        . Mens rea signifies the actor's state of mind regarding the social harm of the offense, whereas the element of voluntariness applies to an act that caused the social harm
      - omissions
        
        There are at least 4 situations in which the failure to act may constitute breach of a legal duty. One can be held criminally liable: (1) where a statute imposes a duty, (2) where one stands in a certain status relationship to another (Parent/child, clergyman/clergy member, doctor/patient), (3) where one has assumed A contractual duty to care for another, and (4), where one has voluntarily assumed the care of another and so secluded the helpless person as to prevent others from rendering aid. There is maybe a number (5) when a person creates a risk of harm to another.
        
        Remember the Doctor life support case: the court determined cessation of heroic life support measures is not an affirmative act but a withdrawal or omission of further treatment. meaning, there had to have been some legal duty to continue the life support. There is a duty if the medical treatment is proportionate (benefits outweigh the burdens to the patient, even if it causes pain if the prognosis is barely above 0) Here, there was very little chance to improve the condition of Herbert. Medical professionals said so
      - Social Harm
        
        Offenses contain attendant circumstance elements. Such elements constitute a part of the actus reus of every offense. An attendant circumstance is a condition that must be present, in conjunction with the prohibited conduct or the prohibited result, to constitute the crime.
- - - - Remember the unborn fetus case: D argued he did not commit murder because his conduct was not within the statutory definition of murder: the unlawful killing of a human being with malice and aforethought." Human being was contested. The court said the legislature declares what is criminal conduct and it will not rewrite the statute because D did not have fair notice.
        
        Destitute is a doctrine that allows a court to determine an existing law has lapsed due to a lack of public support – i.e., adultery as a crime
    - - Ambiguous means it is susceptible to two or more reasonable interpretations. The peeping tom case: Lenity doctrine where there is a criminal statute, it must be strictly construed against the state (ambiguous). Ambiguity does not mean it is unconstitutional; it just means it does not apply. It fails to provide the type of notice required by the due process clause (it is rare). The model penal code rejects the lenity doctrine.
- - - - Any morally blameworthy state of mind. BROAD. Think of general intent: when there is no mens rea listed.
    - - NARROW. refers to the mental state in the definition of the offense. Look closely at the words of the statute. If it says knowingly, recklessly is insufficient. The approach the MPC uses.
    - - The term malice in a criminal statute means that the person acted with either (1) a conscious objective to cause the social harm OR (2) An awareness (actual) of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the social harm would occur and proceeding to act nevertheless
    - - The MPC does not use the word intent. Intent is a common law word. In MPC terms, intent means either purposefully or knowingly. When the term intent comes up on exams, articulate purposeful and knowingly under the MPC and combine them.
    - - When someone intends to harm one person and harms someone else—transferred intent. The accused is deemed culpable as if he intended to hit the other person
        
        The MPC does not recognize transferred intent but analyzes the divergence between the result contemplated and the actual result.