CRIMINAL LAW
PROFESSOR CHAD FLANDERS
SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY
FALL 2011- 1L
UNDERSTANDING PROPERTY BY JOSHUA DRESSLER
STANDARDS OF REVIEW
· Sufficiency of the Evidence
· Reasonable juror find evidence sufficient to convict BRD
· Gives benefit of doubt to prosecution
· Jury Instruction on lesser included offense: viewed in the light more favorable to D because they never got a chance to argue this
· Pure Question of Law
· Trial: Is the accused guilty BRD?
· Appeal: Was the evidence sufficient to find D guilty BRD. Could any rational trier of fact (judge or jury) find the D guilty BRD? Appeal court is looking at record once removed. Did not look and see first hand, testimony given or evidence entered, can only read the transcripts and court documents.
Owens v. State
PURPOSE OF PUNISHMENT
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
· Reflects a moral judgment; would rather let a guilty person go free than convict an innocent person
· Something “inherently qualitative” or resistant to being put in “percentage terms. We know proof BRD is more than “more likely or not” or the “preponderance of evidence”
Utilitarianism: Goal of society should be the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. The aim oh punishment should be to produce the best punishment that reduces the greatest number of crimes.
· General Deterrence: When you punish one person for a crime in order to send a message to society
· Ex: We should punish A for raping B in order to send a message to other would-be rapists so they know what happens when caught
· United States v. Bergman
· State v. Chaney
· Specific Deterrence: When you deter person X by punishing person X
· Incapacitation: While imprisoned—you keep the person off the streets; or
· Intimidation: You make the person scared to do it again because they remember how unpleasant the experience was being punished the first time
· United States v. Jackson
· Rehabilitation: Rehabilitate people so they don’t reoffend. Attempt to re-make wrongdoers into productive members of society.
· Optimal Deterrence: Punish at a level of severity to deter crime, but not too high as to incentive other crimes (speeding was death; you might try to shoot your way out of getting a speeding ticket. This would not optimize deterrence, from a utilitarian point of view)
Retributivism: Believes people should be punished simply because they’ve done something wrong, even if it does not deter crime
· Public Vengeance: It is morally right to hate criminals. They have done something wrong so we must hate them back. Could be re-written as; someone might feel crimes deserve to be punished by looking at it as if they had committed a crime. They may feel that they deserve to be punished for doing something morally wrong
· Hayes v. State
· Protective Retributivism: Punishment is equal or proportional to crime committed. To balance things out, society must punish wrongdoers
· Victim Vindication: By committing an offense, a criminal implicitly sends a message to the victim and society that his (criminal) rights and desires are more valuable than the victims. Punishment, then, balances the scales and elevates (or vindicates) the victim.
Denunciation: Societies way of disapproving of crimes. It includes aspects of both Utilitarianism (punishment exists to deter crimes) and Retributivism (denunciation recognizes that crimes have moral aspects).
Sentencing
· Missouri Pre-Sentencing Form: Whether the fiscal costs of various punishments should be considered by judges at sentencing. Imprisonment can be many times more expensive than probation or other community based punishments. Should that matter to sentencing?
· Issues: If a judge takes fiscal costs into consideration does that hinder justice being served since those costs are unrelated to the criminal’s offense? Perhaps judges should be able to look at the cost of imprisonment versus the costs to society if the offender was given probation and he re-offended?
Graham v. Florida
Proportionality: Deter the crime without excessive punishment. The nature of offense and offender are ascertained when determining punishment.
United States v. Allen
Proportionality of Punishment
· Utilitarian: Believe punishments are supposed to deter people. The punishment itself must be severe enough to deter, but not so severe that society’s resources are wasted. Punishments can vary for different criminals convicted of the same offense because specific deterrence is also an aim of punishment. To deter an individual, a punishment can be adjusted up or down
· Retributive: What does the criminal deserve?
· Ex: 25,000 speeding fine. Util. appreciate; Ret. Argue that a speeder does not deserve such a fine, because it would be disproportionate to the crime.
· Deterrence: Don’t want to punish people over what would normally deter them. Punishment can be different for individuals committing the same crime.
· Ex: Four days in jail for Paris Hilton might equate as an equivalent deterrent for 4 months in jail to another person
What Counts as Punishment?
Sex Offender Registration: Is it further punishment?
· Factors to look at: In Missouri
· Historical Punishment: Look like something used in the past, which we usually consider punishment
· Promote Aims: Promote aims of punishment/serve the purpose (deter
· Don’t presume any of a statute’s words are mere surplusage: Try to read them in a way where each word is doing some work
· Holistic Interpretation: (look at statutes as a whole): We should interpret one statute in light of other, similar statutes, and make them consistent with one another (so far as this is possible)
ELEMENTS OF A CRIME
Required to prove the following:
· Actus Reas
· Mens Rea:
Strict Liability: Requires that there be a bad act. No mental state is required to be proven. Ex: trespass and statutory rape.
· Causation
Act Requirement
Actus Reus: An act must be a voluntary act in that it is not caused by something such as hypnosis or a seizure. To satisfy the voluntary act requirement, there could be a voluntary act in the course of conduct such as choosing to drive a car and then having a seizure.
Need: Social Harm—what crime?
The act can be:
· Physical act; or
· Omission; or
· Possession
Voluntary Act: A bodily movement performed while conscious as a result of effort or determination
· Movement Required: Slightest muscular contraction or bodily movement constitutes
· Ex: Finger (pulling trigger); Tongue (making terrorist threat)
· Willed: Controlled by mind of actor (thoughts are not acts)
· Punishment of Drug Addiction: State lacks constitutional authority to punish a person for the illness of narcotics addiction.
· Punishment for Public Drunkenness: P not punish for status or condition of alcoholism, but for the act of getting intoxicated and going into a public place. First drink was voluntary, so that element is satisfied.
Involuntary Act: Will not be deterred by punishment. Following are not considered “voluntary” and cannot be the basis for criminal liability:
· Conduct that is not the product of the actor’s determination (A shoves B into C, with C resulting in death B is not liable to C)
· Reflexive or convulsive acts, nor words
· Acts performed by the D was either unconscious, sleep walking, hypnotism, or a seizure unless the D knew that she might fall asleep or become unconscious and engaged in dangerous behavior.
