I. What are the principles of punishment?
a. The ultimate goal of criminal law is punishment. The judges who do sentencing are influenced by the goals of society, what society is against which also has an influence on the prosecutors of today who are influenced by what the public wants, and have different ethical obligations as a result.
i. Deterrence
1. General deterrence- I will never do that because they got punished
2. Specific deterrence- I will never do that again
ii. Retribution- look to the past rather than the future, the goal being to ensure that the individual gets what he or she deserves. Doesn’t matter about deterrence but rather that wrong that has been done must be punished.
A. Communicative retribution theory- right deprivation helps to define the fundamental equal worth of all human beings. Denying another person a right is treating them as worthless
B. Shared responsibility involves the mitigation of a ∆’s punishment
iii. Rehabilitation- utilitarian theory, idea that society has an obligation to punish an individual in a way that makes him or her a better person
iv. Isolation/incapacitation- remove wrongdoers from law-abiding persons. While in prison one person cannot harm others, at least those outside the prison. Does not require ∆ to change his behavior from fear or redemption
v. Education- of the populace in what rules society considers to be most sacred and important. The value it holds.
II. What is sentencing?
a. Sentencing- nothing is more important to the ∆ and arguably nothing is more important to the public. Public wants fairness at trial for the ∆.
i. When dealing with sentencing have to look at what the statute provides for in a sentence. If a sentence is within reasonable boundaries under the statute then the appellate court is very rarely going to step in.
ii. Intermediate sentencing- legislative established maximum sentence for a crime
iii. Mandatory sentencing- legislative arraigned, debates about the effectiveness because takes away the judge’s discretion in the sentencing process.
iv. Judicial discretion- judge gets to make the decision on sentencing based upon the facts while following the intermediate sentencing guidelines
III. What do appellate courts look to on appeals?
a. The nature of the crime: background of the crime, buildup and planning’
b. Character of the offender: education history, friends view of person, and all other pertinent background information about the character of the offender
c. Protection of public interest: gravity of the offense, the principles of punishment and how it has impacted the decision
i. Most common standard appellate courts use is the abuse of discretion standard, because they do not have the same access to all of the testimony and the witnesses that were used in the trial
IV. What are the limitations on Criminal Law
a. Ex post facto- constitution forbids congress and state legislatures from passing ex post facto criminal laws. Cannot enact statutes that criminalize acts that were innocent when done or that increase the severity of the crimes punishment after the fact. Courts do not extend conduct beyond what is intended by the legislature. Punishment is purposely inflicted by the state because one of its laws was violated
b. Plain meaning rule- language is plain and its meaning is clear, the court must give effect to it even if the court feels the law is unwise or undesirable
c. Expression Unius, Exclusio Alterius- the expression of one thing impliedly indicates an intention to exclude another
i. Canons- abstract rules for dealing with statutory problems. Often in the form of Latin phrases, often has to do with exclusion of things not there
d. Lenity- a statute must be strictly construed in favor of the ∆. An ambiguous statute is one susceptible to or more equally reasonable interpretations. A vague statute is one that is so unclear as to be susceptible to no reasonable interpretation. “construe a penal statute as favorably to the defendant as its language and the circumstances of its application may reasonably permit”
i. Model penal code- requires statues be “construed according to fair import of their terms”
e. Dynamic – it is the courts job to find an interpretation of a statute that fits underlying policies and serves society’s goals. May be considered judicial activism or aggressiveness when interpreting a statute. In criminal law there is not supposed to be much statute interpretation.
f. Burden of proof- prosecution has the burden of proof, and the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt (BRD). The idea is to prevent ∆’s from facing a loss of liberty, and stigmatized for committing an immoral act that was not yet clear. (somewhere around 76% -95% of to meet standard
V. What is the model penal code?
a. An update to the law of crime and criminal definitions. the model penal code was intended to get rid of some of the long legal words and replace them with more modern concepts
VI. What are the basics of Criminal Prosecution?
a. The investigation
b. The charge
i. Indictment- an indictment is sent down by jurisdictions with a grand jury issue
ii. Information- sent down by a prosecuting attorney who is filing the charges
c. Pre-trial motions
d. The trial
i. Peti
sumed the care of another individual and secluded the individual to prevent aide from others
v. Knowledge giving rise to duty
A. Generally a duty arises when ∆ is aware of facts creating a duty to act
vi. Reasonably Possibly to Perform
A. ∆’s action must be reasonable or get someone else to do it
c. What is moral duty?
i. Generally society does not impose responsibility on those who fail to live up to a moral duty. It is not an affirmative obligation
ii. “good Samaritan” statutes make it a criminal offense to refuse to help those known to be in serious peril when aid could be provided without danger
d. What is possession?
i. Mere possession or the failure to terminate possession once the ∆ learns of the items presence is sufficient.
ii. “dominion and control”
1. Words have different meanings, could be legal title, keys etc.
2. Construed as having active or constructive knowledge on the ∆’s part of the nature of the item he has under his control or custody.
3. Courts can rule for control based off of the proximity of an item, an the ability to reduce an object to control and dominion
A. Require that ∆ has control of the item for a long enough period to have an opportunity to terminate the possession. The ∆ must be aware of his possession of the object but need not be aware of its illegality.
4. Pot brownies
A. Visitor who did not know of the brownies did not voluntarily possess
i. May not have to report crime but once knowledge would have to remove the brownies from the premises
ii. Voluntary possession is affected by “dominion and control”
1. Have to look at the circumstances surrounding, other people in room, person claiming possession etc.
iii. Possession is voluntary but the presence at a certain location does not have to be
e. What is Mens rea?
i. – (guilty mind) the state of mind or intent of the defendant at the time of his act
1. General intent
A. Can be silent or use amorphous turns such as feloniously, maliciously, wrongfully, willfully
B. Intent to do the proscribed act but no particular outcome
i. Found in the common law
