Elements of a crime

Elements of a crime Class #3

Mistake of fact • Common law rules • Strict liability offenses: Under no circumstances does a person’s mistake of fact negates his criminal responsilbity for violating a strict liability offense • Specific intent crimes : A defendant is not guilty of an offense if his mistake of fact negates the specific-intent portion of the crimen, i.e., if he lacks the intent required in the definition of the offense • General intent crimes : The person is not guilty of a general-intent crime if his mistake of fact was reasonable, but he is guilty if his mistake was unreasonable

Mistake of fact • MPC rules : • Rule : A mistake of fact is a defense if it negates the mental state required to establish any element of the offense. • It is irrelevant whether the offense would be identified as general-intent or specific-intent at common law. • Exception to the rule: The defense of mistake-of-fact is not available if the actor would be guilty of another offense, had the circumstances been as he supposed.

Criminal homicide Class #4

Definition • Homicide is « the killing of one human being by another » • Definition of human being? • « Born alive » rule • The end of human life? • Cardiopulmonary definition of death / « whole brain death » • Kansas statute: death occurs when, according to accepted medical standards, the individual experiences an irreversible cessation of breathing and heartbeat OR there is an absence of spontaneous brain activity • Year-and-a-day rule • The common law provides that a defendant may not be prosecuted for criminal homicide unless the victim dies within a year and a day of the act inflicting the fatal injury • The overwhelming trend is to abrogate the rule or apply a longer time limitation

Criminal homicide : common law principles • Murder : the kiling of a human being by another human being with malice aforethought • Manslaughter : an unlawful killing of a human being by another human being without malice aforethought • Malice aforethought • Aforethought: premeditation • Malice : one of four states of mind: (1) the intention to kill a human being, (2) the intention to inflict grievous bodily injury on another, (3) « depraved-heart » murder and (4) the intention to commit a felony during the commission or attempted commission of which a death results (« felony murder »)

Manslaughter • Three types of unlawful killings constitute manslaughter : • Intentional killing committed in « sudden heat of passion » as the result of « adequate provocation » • Unintentional killing that is the result of « an act, lawful in itself, but done in an unlawful manner and without due caution and circumspection » => involuntary manslaughter • Unintentional killing that occurs during the commission or attempted commission of an unlawful act

Murder: the Pennsylvania Model and the MPC model • Pennsylvania model : Statute dividing murder into two degrees: first degree murder, for which the death penalty remained, and murder in the second degree, for which a lesser sentence was imposed • MPC rejects the degree-of-murder approach, dividing criminal homicide into three crimes (murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide) • Assuming that a murder has occurred, three types of murder fall within the first-degree category in the Pennsylvania model: • Murders that are committed in a statutorily specified manner • Willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing • Homicide that occurs during the perpetration or the attempted perpetration of a statutorily enumerated felony • All other forms of murder constitute second-degree murder.

Death penalty in the US

Willful, deliberate and premeditated killing • Definition? • Premeditation = « a brief moment of thought » • This definition undermines the legislative division of murder into degrees

Joannie and her husband Tim are in a terrible fight in the kitchen. Tim tells Joannie that he is going to get a divorce and will thereafter seek full custody of their two young children. Joannie states, “Wait here. I need to go to the bathroom. I will be right back.” She walks down the hall, but goes into the bedroom, rather than the bathroom, and removes a handgun from the nightstand drawer. She then walks to the bathroom and flushes the toilet. Hiding the handgun in the pocket of her bathrobe, she walks back into the kitchen, removes it, and shoots Tim four times in the abdomen, killing him. • Frank, Dillon’s supervisor, calls Dillon into his office and fires him. Enraged, Dillon grabs a heavy brass paperweight from the top of Frank’s desk and strikes him in the forehead, killing him instantly.

Intent to inflict grievous bodily injury • Malice aforethought is implied if a person intends to cause grievous bodily injury to another but death results. Jay wants to injure Robbie, a track teammate, so that he will be the best runner in the high school track meet. Jay waits for Robbie outside the locker room and when Robbie exits, Jay attacks him and stabs him several times in the knee. Unfortunately, one of Jay’s stabbing wounds is in the carotid artery, and Robbie bleeds to death.

Depraved heart (extreme recklessness) murder • Almost always constitutes second-degree murder • Malice is implied because the defendant’s conduct is « so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so devoid of regard of the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes the death of another » • A depraved-heart homicide is one in which the actor’s conduct manifesed extreme recklessness, i.e., risk-taking that shows an extreme indifference to the value of one or more human lives

Depraved heart - examples • Jay is angry at Brittany for turning him down when he asks her to the senior prom. Jay decides to teach Brittany a lesson. He knocks her unconscious as she walks home from school and then drives her out to a deserted field and dumps her on the ground. He thereafter leaves, feeling vindicated at the thought of her walking over ten miles to the nearest telephone. Brittany does not regain consciousness and spends the entire night in the field, where temperatures drop to 5°F. Brittany dies of exposure and acute hypothermia. • Intentionally shooting a firearm into an occupied room, killing a person • Driving a car at a high rate of speed in inclement weather and while intoxicated, killing a pedestrian or car occupant • Playing “Russian roulette” by loading a gun with one “live” and four “dummy” shells, spinning the revolver, and intentionally firing it at another person, killing her.

Murder : the felony-murder rule • Rule : one is guilty of murder if a death results from conduct during the commission or attempted commission of any felony • Most modern murder statutes provide that a death that results from the commission of a specifically-listed felony (such as arson, rape, robbery or burglary) constitutes first-degree murder for which the maximum penalty is death or life emprisonment. • If a death results from the commission of an unspecified felony, it is second-degree murder.

People v. Fuller • California Penal Code Section 189 : « All murder which is committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, arson, rape, robbery, burglary, mayhem, or lewd acts with a minor, is murder of the first degree. »

Rationale of the felony-murder rule: • Deterrence? • « Reaffirming the sanctity of life »? • Easing the prosecutor’s burden of proof?

Limits on the felony-murder rule • Inherently-dangerous felony limitation • Many states limit the rule to homicides that occurred during the commission of a felony dangerous to human life. • People v. Howard: • In determining whether a felony is inherently dangerous under the second-degree murder rule looks to the elments of the felony in the abstract, not the particular facts of the case, and hold whether the felony, by its very nature, cannot be committed without creating a substantial risk that someone will be killed

Independent felony (or merger) limitation • The felony-murder rule applies only if the underlying felony is independent of, or collateral to, the homicide. • People v. Smith: • The felony-murder rule is inapplicable to felonies that are an integral part of and included in fact within the homicide. • But the rule may nevertheless apply if the underlying offense was committed with an « independent felonious purpose » as opposed to a « single course of conduct with a single purpose »

Res gestae requirement • The homicide must occur « within the res gestae of things done to commit the felony » • Time and distance requirements: part of « one continuous transaction » • Causation requirements: proximate causation / logical nexus between the homicidal act and the felony

Killing by a non-felon • Suppose F1 and F2 enter a liquor store in order to rob it. F1 points a gun at X, a store employee, and threatens to kill her unless she hands over the money in the cash register. To prove her point, F1 fires warning shots over X’s head. In response, X justifiably fires a weapon at F1 to prevent the robbery and in self-defense. Two people – F1 and V, a customer in the store – are struck and killed by the bullets from X’s weapon. May F2 be convicted of felony-murder of F1 and V?

State v. Sophophone :The felony-murder doctrine does not apply if the person who directly causes the death is a non-felon. • Majority approach : the agency approach • The felony-murder rule does not apply if an adversary to the crime, rather than a felon, personally commits the homicidal act. • But a person is responsible for the acts of another if the shooter is using as an agent of the non-shooter, for example when the secondary party is an accomplice of the primary party. • Minority approach : the proximate causation approach • A felon is liable for any death that is the proximate result of the felony, even if the shooter is not one of the felons.

Manslaughter: « sudden heat of passion » • An intentional homicide committed in « sudden heat of passion » as the result of « adequate provocation » mitigates the offense to voluntary manslaughter. • The common law defense contains four elements: (1) the actor must have acted in heat of passion, (2) the passion must have been the result of adequate provocation, (3) the actor must have had a reasonable opportunity to cool off, and (4) there must be a causal link between the provocation, the passion, and the homicide

State of passion • Fear, jealousy, furious resentment or wild desperation • Adequate provocation • Early common law categories: aggravated assault or battery, mutual combat, commission of a serious crime against a close relative of the defendant, illegal arrest, and observation of spousal adultery. • Modern law: the issue of what constitutes adequate provocation should be left to the jury to decide • One common law has persisted in non-MPC jurisdictions: « words alone » do not constitute adequate provocation • No cooling off time • Causal link • Even if a person is adequately provoked, the provocation defense is unavailable to a defendant whose motivation for the homicide is causally unrelated to the provocation

Manslaughter : criminal negligence • Involuntary manslaughter involves a gross deviation from the standard of care that reasonable people would exercise in the same situation. • Example : State v. Williams

Manslaughter : unlawful-act doctrine • An accidental homicide that occurs during the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony (or, at least, not amounting to a felony that would trigger the felony-murder rule) constitutes common-law involuntary manslaughter. • The scope of the doctrine varies widely by jurisdiction: • Some states permit a prosecution for involuntary manslaughter for all offenses, even when the predicate offense is a minor misdemeanour traffic offense • In contrast, some courts limit the doctrine to inherently dangerous misdemeanors

MPC : Criminal homicide • A person is guilty of criminal homicide under the MPC if she unjustifiably and inexcusably takes the life of another human being purposely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently. • Murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide • Murder : the actor unjustifiably, inexcusably, and in the absence of mitigating circumstances, kills another (1) purposely or knowingly or (2) recklessly, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference ot the value of human life

MPC : Manslaughter and negligent homicide • A person is guilty of manslaughter if she either (1) recklessly kills another one, or (2) kills another person under circumstances that would ordinarily constitute murder, but which homicide is committed as the result of extreme mental or emotional disturbance for which there is a reasonable explanation or excuse • Reckless homicide • « EMED » : reasonable explanation or excuse for the EMED that caused the actor to kill (and not for the homicide) • Example : People v. Cassassa • The EMED manslaughter provision is much broader than the common law provocation defense • A person is guilty of negligent homicide if she kills another one negligently.

Elements of a crime