Civil Law
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Substantive Criminal Law
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Procedural Criminal Law
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Common Law
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4 Sources of Law
1. Constitutions
2. Statutes
3. Court decisions (case law)
4. Administrative regulations
Constitutions
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Statutes
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Case Law
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Administrative Regulations
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Civil Forfeiture
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Legality
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Actus Reus
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Causation
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Harm
-an act must cause harm to some legally protected value
-the harm can be done to a person, property, or some other object that a legislature deems valuable enough to deserve protection through the government's power to punish
-this principle is questioned by those who feel that in causing harm only to themselves they aren't committing a crime
Inchoate Offense
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Concurrence
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Mens Rea
-the commission of an act is not a crime unless it is accompanied by a guilty state of mind
-this concept is related to intent
-"guilty mind" or blameworthy state of mind, necessary for legal responsibility for a criminal offense
-criminal intent, as distinguished from innocent intent
-exceptions to the concept of mens rea are strict liability offenses involving health and safety in which showing intent isn't necessary
Punishment
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Elements of a Crime
1. the act (actus reus)
2. the attendant circumstances
3. the state of mind (mens rea)
Strict Liability
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8 Defenses Based on Lack of Criminal Intent
Justification Defenses
1. Self Defense
2. Necessity
Excuse Defenses
3. Duress (coercion)
4. Entrapment
5. Infancy
6. Mistake of Fact
7. Intoxication
8. Insanity
Justification Defenses
-focus on whether the individual's action was socially acceptable under the circumstances despite causing a harm that the criminal law would otherwise seek to prevent
Necessity
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Self Defense
-a person who has a reasonable fear that he or she is in immediate danger of being harmed by another person may ward off the attack in self defense
-laws of most states recognize the right to defend others from attack, to protect property, and to prevent a crime
-the level of force used in self defense can't exceed the person's reasonable perception of the threat
Excuse Defenses
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Duress (Coercion)
-when someone commits a crime because another person coerces him/her
-courts generally don't accept this defense if people don't try to escape from the situation
Insanity Tests
1. M'Naghten Rule
2. Irresistible Impulse Test
3. Durham Rule
4. Model Penal Code
5. Comprehensive Crime Control Act
Procedural Due Process
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4th Amendment
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5th Amendment
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Self Incrimination
-the act of exposing oneself to prosecution by being forced to respond to questions whose answers may reveal that one has committed a crime
-the 5th amendment protects defendants against compelled self incrimination
-in any criminal proceeding, the prosecution must prove the charges by means of evidence other than the involuntary testimony of the accused
Double Jeopardy
-the subjecting of a person to prosecution more than once in the same jurisdiction for the same offense
-prohibited by the 5th amendment
6th Amendment
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8th Amendment
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Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
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14th Amendment
barred states from violating people's right to due process of law
Powell v. Alabama (1932)
an attorney must be provided to a poor defendant facing the death penalty
Fundamental Fairness
-a legal doctrine supporting the idea that so long as a state's conduct maintains basic standards of fairness, the constitution has not been violated
Incorporation
-the extension of the due process clause of the 14th amendment to make binding on state governments the rights guaranteed in the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution (the Bill of Rights)
-Warren Court era
Grand Jury
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Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
-indigent defendants have a right to counsel when charged with serious crimes for which they could face 6 months or more incarceration
Indigent Defendants
-people facing prosecution who don't have enough money to pay for their own attorneys and court expenses