Criminal Law

Gazelle tells lion that charging at him constitutes an attempt on his life.

Elderly man argues for no custody time since he will not be a recidivist.

Oral sex performed upon a woman constitutes a crime against nature; due process clause.

Ex post facto law. A statute may not be retroactively enforced against conduct that was not illegal at the time it was committed.

Home rule ordinance. Local municipalities may not enact local legislation directly conflicting with state statutes establishing a comprehensive scheme for criminal punishment.

Transferred intent is inapplicable to offenses requiring the specific intent to inflict specific harm upon a specific individual; assault; general intent.

One acts knowingly not only with positive knowledge, but also with an awareness of a high probability that a fact exists; actual knowledge; wilfull blindness.

Recklessness is conscious and unjustifiable disregard of substantial risk that offender's conduct may cause certain result or may be of certain nature. Reckless disregard.

Evidence of the mistaken belief relates to whether the State has failed to prove the essential mental element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Mistake of fact; reckless.

Possession requires knowingly exercising immediate and exclusive control over an object. Willful.

Omission to act by one under a legal duty to do so is sufficient for criminal liability if it is a substantial factor in bringing about the consequences prohibited by statute. Child abuse; information.

Heat of passion. Due process does not require the prosecution to disprove all affirmative defenses that may be available to defendant, so long as it has proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. manslaughter; murder.

Premeditation. To establish first-degree murder, premeditation must be proved by evidence that defendant considered his decision to kill for some period of time before act of killing. Deliberate first- degree murder; intent; second-degree murder.

Causation. Criminal conviction for manslaughter must be based on the actions that cause the victim's death. reasonable doubt.

Death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment under appropriate circumstances. Bifurcated trial.

Model Penal Code criminal defendant not responsible for actions result of a mental disease or defect if lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate criminality or make conduct conform requirements law. Insanity defense; mental illness.

Drug addiction is not a common law defense to criminal charges of drug possession. Addict; drug addict; mens rea.

Infancy defense to the capacity to understand the wrongfulness of minor's actions applies to juvenile adjudications and may be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence. Criminal capacity; minority.

Justifiable homicide; justification; mitigating circumstance; necessity. If lawful occupant of house maintains reasonable apprehension that unlawful intruder will commit murder robbery burglar rape, then occupant justified using necessary force.

Resisting arrest. Common-law rule permitting an arrestee to resist forcibly an unlawful arrest must be abolished, absent unreasonable police force.

One under pressure of unlawful threat of harm from another, commits what would otherwise be crime may, under some circumstances justified by act but duress does not mitigate murder to voluntary manslaughter. Mitigating; circumstance.

State compromise statute applies equally to high misdemeanors as to simple misdemeanors in the absence of legislative clarification. Misdemeanor manslaughter.

Sexual intercourse that is achieved by fraud or trickery is not considered rape.

Statutory rape. Law protects children under the age of fourteen from sexual conduct, regardless of whether the offender intended to engage in the act with one under the age of fourteen or whether the victim consented to the act.

Attempt requires specific intent to commit a particular crime, and a direct ineffectual act done towards its commission. Effective assistance of counsel; habeas corpus; ineffective assistance of counsel; kidnapping preparation.

Acts in preparation to commit future crime do not constitute attempt if actor abandons act before committing crime. preparation; test.

Legal impossibility is not defense in court-martial proceeding when the defendants committed the necessary criminal acts with the intent to commit crime. Attempt; rape.

Inchoate offense; meeting of the minds. Person cannot be guilty of conspiracy when the only person with whom he has conspired or agreed has feigned agreement.

Assailant does not need to be aware that victim is federal officer in order to be held criminally liable for conspiracy to commit assault on federal officer engaged in performance of his official duties.

Single agreement to commit one or many crimes can only be punished as one conspiracy.

Chain conspiracy. Conviction for conspiracy may be upheld based on only one single act from which knowledge and participation may be inferred.

One who solicits another to engage in conduct constituting a crime can be held criminally liable for solicitation of that crime.

Complicity liability for criminal behavior of another exists if the defendant aids, abets, or advises other person in committing criminal offense of which he had knowledge and that was actually committed. Strict liability.

Conspirator may be liable for criminal offenses committed by co-conspirator if those offenses were within scope of conspiracy, are in furtherance of conspiracy and reasonably foreseeable as natural consequence of conspiracy. Co-conspirator.

Collateral estoppel bars retrial of issue decided previous trial if issues tried at both trials are identical, previous trial resulted judgment on merits and party against whom collateral estoppel assessed was party or was in privity with party at first trial.

Person who would otherwise be guilty as an accomplice because of assistance or encouragement is not guilty if the crime is defined so that participation by another is inevitably incident to its commission. Complicity; directed verdict.

Corporation may be held criminally responsible for the acts of its agents if the corporation placed the agent in a position in which he has enough authority to act on behalf of the corporation in handling that particular corporate business.

Misprision of felony, the common law providing that the bare failure of a person with knowledge of the commission of a felony must bring the crime to the attention of the proper authorities, is not a part of Florida substantive law.

Due process considerations of Fifth Amendment, applied to states through Fourteenth Amendment, requires an increase in maximum prison sentence to be based on facts found by jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Evidentiary hearing; hate crime.

Status crime. It is unconstitutional, as cruel and unusual punishment, to prosecute a defendant for a crime based not on any voluntary act, but on his or her status or illness.

Law requiring registration of felon contravenes due process when person charged with violating the requirement had no reason to know of registration requirement.

Good-faith belief that the tax laws did not impose a duty on him to file returns or pay taxes did not have to be objectively reasonable in order to be considered as a defense by the jury. Willfullness.

Right to die laws; euthanasia; terminally ill; advance directives. Phyician assisted suicide is not murder, it is assisted suicide, a common-law felony in absence of statute that specifically prohibits assisting suicide.

Wanton or reckless conduct is intentional conduct, which may be either act of commission or omission when have duty to act, that involves high likelihood substantial harm will result to another. Involuntary manslaughter; manslaughter; willful.

But-for-test; felony murder; felony murder rule. Felony murder if death is during commission of violent felony, death not too remote, accidental, or occurrence dependent volitional act another. Aggravated arson.

Repeat.

Necessity defense; compulsion; duress; eighth amendment; justification; justification defense. Prisoner may escape to avoid harm if did not cause situation and reasonably believed actions necessary to avoid greater injury than escape.

Irresistable impulse test. Person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at time act was committed mental disease or defect caused lack of capacity to appreciate wrongfulness of conduct or conform his conduct to law. Substantial capacity.

Accomplice will be liable only for crimes that he or she intended to facilitate. Negligent homicide.

Corporation may be convicted of specific-intent crime when agent of corporation takes illegal acts in furtherance of the corporate business interests; alter ego; commercial crime; corporate crime; legal fiction; specific intent; swindle.

Failing to pay money to a creditor under an agreement to pay the debt of another does not constitute fraudulent conversion, since the money at issue never belonged to the creditor; conversion novation.

Defendant may not be convicted rape if words and conduct of complainant justify reasonable belief that complainant consented. affirmative defense; general intent; mistake of fact; preponderance of the evidence; reasonable doubt; specific intent.

Reasonable mistake of fact regarding a victim's consent is not a defense to a rape charge. Mens rea.

Provocation defense is akin to self defense; would a person having ordinary powers of self-control commit same crime as defendent given gravity of provocation? Evidence of the alcoholism or intoxication of defendant should not be considered.

Mott Rule; mental illness short of insanity does not bear on mens rea according to Arizona state Mott Rule; court will not allow evidence of a mental disorder short of insanity as bearing on a defendant's capacity to form specific intent.

White collar crime cartoon; Arthur Andersen LLP; withhold documents; alter documents; destroy documents.

United States v. Gementera, judge force convict to declare crime in public, The Sentencing Reform Act affords courts broad discretion in fashioning conditions of supervised release reasonably related to nature and circumstances of offense.

McBoyle v. United States, legislation must be drafted in such a way as to give citizens fair warning of what conduct is encompassed within the statute, ejusdem generis.

Essential element of the crime of rape is lack of consent.

The underlying felony sufficient to trigger the felony-murder rule must involve an independent felonious purpose, lesser included offense.

Self defense, The reasonableness of a belief in the need to use force is determined according to an objective standard, taking into account the circumstances or situation faced by the defendant.

Selective prosecution, courts are reluctant to interfere with prosecutorial discretion.

It is not a vindictive exercise of a prosecutor's discretion, and therefore not a violation of due process, to reindict a defendant on more serious charges if the defendant does not plead guilty to the original offense charged.

Determinate sentence, indeterminate sentence, sentencing guidelines, imposition of a sentence outside the statutory range based on facts never admitted nor put before a jury deprives a criminal defendant of his Sixth Amendment rights.

Flores-Figueroa v. United States; Courts ordinarily read a phrase in a criminal statute that introduces the elements of a crime with the word "knowingly" as applying that word to each element of the offense; identity theft.

People v. Smith; second-degree felony murder conviction cannot stand when in it is based on a felony that is an integral part of the homicide and the evidence produced by the prosecution shows it to be an offense included in fact within homicide.

Perez v. Cain; In a federal habeas proceeding, the standard is whether, after viewing evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

Kansas v. Hendricks; Where a civil commitment statute does not seek retribution or deterrence, it does not establish punitive criminal proceedings necessary to uphold double jeopardy and ex post facto claims.

Bronston v. United States; To support a perjury conviction, a witness must actually willfully state a material matter that he does not believe to be true.

United States v. Cueto; Otherwise lawful conduct violates 18 U.S.C. § 1503 if employed with corrupt intent to interfere, obstruct, or impede the due administration of justice.

Clark v. Arizona; The defendant appealed from his murder conviction, arguing that evidence of his mental illness should have been considered with regard to his ability to form the necessary mens rea.

Commonwealth v. Levesque; criminal liability is possible for failure to alleviate risk that the defendant created.

Keeler v. Superior Court; viability of the embryo was not the standard for human being in California in the 1970's.

State v. Barger; new technology complicates questions of possession sufficient to establish criminal liability.

Commonwealth v. Sherry; wheter a reasonable good-faith mistake of fact as to consent is a defense to the crime of rape;

Pinkerton v. United States; When there is a continuous conspiracy, and no evidence of affirmative action to establish withdrawal, as long as the partnership in crime continues, the partners act for each other.

Commonwealth v. Roebuck; An accomplice is accountable for contributing to criminal conduct to the degree his culpability equals what is required to support liability of a principal actor.

United States v. Guidant; A term of probation is appropriate for corporate defendants to hold them accountable and serve the public interests.