Criminal Law and Procedure
Mens Rea and Actus Reus
Know the four common-law mental states: purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence. Distinguish specific intent (burglary, larceny, embezzlement, assault, first-degree premeditated murder) from general intent and strict liability. Actus reus requires a voluntary act or an omission where there is a legal duty to act.
Inchoate Crimes and Defenses
Attempt requires specific intent plus a substantial step. Solicitation and conspiracy merge into the completed offense, but conspiracy does not merge with attempt. Defenses include self-defense (reasonable belief in imminent unlawful force, no duty to retreat in most jurisdictions unless the defendant is the initial aggressor), defense of others, defense of habitation, duress, necessity, insanity (M'Naghten, irresistible impulse, ALI), and entrapment.
Fourth Amendment and Confessions
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Know the warrant exceptions: search incident to arrest, automobile, plain view, consent, exigency, inventory, and stop-and-frisk (Terry). For confessions, Miranda applies to custodial interrogation; the voluntariness test applies regardless. Massiah and Sixth Amendment counsel attach at formal proceedings.
Traps
Questions test whether Miranda warnings are required (not for booking questions or volunteered statements), whether a search requires a warrant (automobile exception requires probable cause, not a warrant), and whether the exclusionary rule applies (fruit of the poisonous tree has exceptions: independent source, inevitable discovery, attenuation).
Rule of thumb
For every search, ask: was there a search, a warrant, and an exception? For every confession: custody, interrogation, warnings, waiver.