CRIMINAL LAW OUTLINE- Professor Bretz
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Purposes of Criminal Law
Why do we punish?
1.) Deterrence- prevention of offenses
· Specific Deterrence- punishing that individual
o More Retributive
o More subjective
· General- making that person an example to others
o More Utilitarian
o More objective (reasonable person standard)
Utilitarian (Bentham)- look forward. What can society get out of this punishment? Look at what is good for society. What good is it going to do to punish? Will it deter? Rehabilitate?
-Punish people to deter others with hope to rehabilitate
US v Blarek- 2 interior decorators were found guilty of money laundering for a drug cartel. They did not have any Criminal History BUT “the sentences imposed follow statutory case law mandates requiring these defendants to be treated harshly, primarily to deter others”
· DETERRENCE- #1 justification in this case
Retributivism (Kant) –looks backwards. Look at the individual and what they did. How bad were you? So bad- you have to be punished. Don’t care about deterrence/rehabilitations- only want to punish
2.) Incapacitation
· Getting the person off the street so they won’t endanger others.
· Physically or otherwise preventing people from perpetrating future crimes. (incarceration)
3.) Retribution
· giving an individual who has broken the law his or her “just desserts,”
o in part because morally this is the right thing to do, and
o in part to channel the human instinct for revenge through the criminal justice process
4.) Rehabilitation
· Changing the behavior or those who have broken the law so that they will not commit more crimes when they are released
B. Crime Classification
1.) Felonies: Possible penalties: more than 1 year
a. Malum in se: wrong in itself (Ex. Murder, rape, robbery)
b. Malum prohibita: bad because they are prohibited
§ statutory law made by court (ex. gambling, traffic offenses)
2.) Misdemeanors: Possible penalties of one year or less
C. Every Crime has two Parts
1.) Mens Rea
o Mental guilty mind (differentiates the crime)
o Ex. 1st degree murder different from 2nd degree-based on leaving an element out
2.) Actus Reas
o Physical
o Causing ______ to another
II. Homicide
· A legally mutual term
· The killing of a human being by another human being
· May or may not criminal
o Criminal homicide- homicide committed w/out justification or excuse
§ There needs to be death of a HUMAN BEING
§ The ∆ must be the person who caused the death
o CORPUS DELICTI RULE- burden on the ∏ -prosecutor must prove
§ A living human being has died- death (Need the body)
§ As a result of another’s criminal act (i.e. criminal agency)
o Circumstantial Evidence – Must be Reasonable
§ Evidence which does not directly make guilty but it is inferred;
§ Can prove corpus delicti
§ 2 types of Evidence-
· Direct (saw A shoot B)
· Indirect (heard a gunshot- went into room and saw A holding gun and B dead on floor- smoke from gun) –CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
Downey v People: Corpus delicti can be met by circumstantial evidence. The fact that he had a bloody shirt & he knew where the body was, was enough to prove that he could of killed her: corpus delicti met
Warmke v Commonwealth: The body does not need to be found. Circumstantial evidence can prove corpus delicti. Here- people had seen her with the baby, she was not from town, she returned the jacket, and she didn’t meet her friend and her baby was a bastard. Later the baby was nowhere to be found. From these facts one can infer that the baby had died. Corpus delicti was met.
In a case where the police find a body with a shot in the head, a confession from someone else in reference to that crime can establish corpus delicti.
A. Three Categories of Homicide
1.) Common Law –objective (reaper-reasonable person standard)
· Judge made law
· Common Law Crimes-
o BARRKS (Burglary, Arson, Rape, Robbery, Kidnapping, Sodomy)
2.) Statutory Approaches
3.) Model Penal Code- subjective (individual culpability)
· A group of statutes
· Get rid of Common law
B. Three Groups of Common Law Murder
1.) Malice afterthought- The Mens Rea element
· Can be express or implied (kinds of mental states)
· All murder requires some sort of Malice
· Can be toward a group or specific individuals
2.) Involuntary Manslaughter
3.) Voluntary Manslaughter
1.) 1.) Malice Afterthought (also needed for statutory Second degree Murder)
subjective mental state-reaper (look at the person individually
MALICE- the intentional doing of any wrongful act, which results in a likely death of a human
· Anyone of the following 3 mental states
1.) Intent to kill
2.) Intent to do great bodily harm (GBH); or
3.) Intentional (i.e. knowing) creation of a very high risk that death or great bodily harm will occur (aka Depraved Heart)
4.) FELONY MURDER
1 &2 Intent to Kill and Intent to do GBH
o Malice Implied (based on surrounding circumstances)
******Totality of the Circumstances*******
3. Depraved Heart/Wanton- Consciously disregarding of the very high
gally sufficient Provocation
3.) No reasonable cooling off period
Distinguishing Characteristic:
a.) Intentional (M1, M2 or Voluntary Manslaughter)
b.) Unintentional (M2, Involuntary)
Reducing an Intentional killing down from murder to Voluntary Manslaughter:
a.) HEAT OF PASSION: a descriptive term defining the reaction of a person to an incident. Person reacted in an agitated and emotional state to the incident.
Any intense emotional excitement of the kind of prompting violent and aggressive action such as rage, anger, hatred, etc.
This emotional state of mind must be of such a degree as would cause an ordinary man to act without reflection for there to be a legal provocation.
Provocation: Looks to what provoked the ∆ to kill another. A provocation is adequate if it is calculated to deprive a reasonable man of self control and cause him to act out of passion rather than reason.
1.) Reasonable provocation; and
2.) No cooling off period
NOTE: Words alone cannot be reasonable provocation unless the words are informative of the crime
State v Grugin: Case is about man finding out son-in-law raped his other daughter. Usually words are never enough because people love to insult each other. However son-in-law used information words like I am going to keep doing it and you can’t stop it. This was enough of a provocation.
OR
Imperfect Privilege (DEFENSES)
1.) Unreasonable belief that life is in danger
2.) Use of excessive force in self-defense; or
3.) ∆ was the initial aggressor
4.) Felony Murder
· Common Law: any death caused by a ∆ during the commission, or attempt to commit any felony as CL law murder, regardless of whether the ∆ intended to kill, intended to do GBH, or intentionally created a very high risk that death or GBH would occur (gross negligence)
§ Malice must be proved
· MODERN VIEW (not common law): Limits the felony-murder rule to enumerated or inherently dangerous felonies (BARRKS)
Note: the state of Michigan includes BARRKS as well as shoplifting, larceny, and drug dealing.
