Criminal Law and Procedure: Elements, Searches, and Custodial Statements
Criminal Law and Procedure splits cleanly into two testable halves: what the prosecution must prove, and what the Constitution limits the government from doing while it proves it. CLE Entrance Exam items typically present a short police narrative and ask whether the evidence comes in, whether a statement is admissible, or which element is missing. Read the fact pattern for the precise moment a right attached.
The elements
A crime generally requires actus reus, mens rea, concurrence of the two, causation, and the result defined by the statute. The Model Penal Code grades mental states as purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently, each with a different result required. Defenses divide into justification (self-defense, defense of others) and excuse (insanity, duress, infancy), plus failure-of-proof defenses such as alibi.
Constitutional limits
- Fourth Amendment. Searches and seizures need probable cause and usually a warrant; recognized exceptions include consent, search incident to arrest, plain view, exigency, the automobile exception, and inventory searches.
- Fifth Amendment. Miranda warnings are required before custodial interrogation. Custody is judged objectively; interrogation includes words or actions reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.
- Sixth Amendment. The right to counsel attaches at formal proceedings, and the right to a speedy and public trial by jury follows.
- Remedy. The exclusionary rule suppresses evidence obtained in violation, subject to good faith, inevitable discovery, and attenuation.
Worked example
An officer lawfully stops a car for a broken taillight and sees a bag of white powder in plain view on the console. Plain view requires a lawful vantage point and immediately apparent incriminating character; both are satisfied, so the seizure needs no warrant. But if the driver is handcuffed in the squad car and the officer then pries open a locked glovebox following a completed traffic arrest, the search exceeds search incident to arrest under current doctrine, and the contents would likely be suppressed absent another exception.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming Miranda applies at every roadside encounter, treating booking questions as interrogation, and forgetting that custody is measured by a reasonable person in the suspect's position, not the officer's intent.