FE-1 Criminal Law cheat sheet

Actus reus requires a voluntary act or legally imposed omission; status, thoughts, and involuntary movements (reflex, unconsciousness, coercion by physical force) do not satisfy it.

Omission liability requires a legal duty (statute, relationship, contract, voluntary assumption of care, creation of peril) plus knowledge and practical ability to act.

Specific intent crimes (burglary, larceny with intent to permanently deprive, assault with intent to commit a felony, first-degree premeditated murder, solicitation, conspiracy, attempt, embezzlement, forgery, false pretenses) require purpose or knowledge; malice and general intent crimes do not.

Malice crimes (murder, arson, burglary under common law malice formulation) require reckless disregard of an obvious or high risk; general intent requires only intent to perform the act.

Strict liability offenses require no mens rea as to any element; they are typically regulatory, public welfare, or morality statutes with small penalties.

Mistake of fact is a defense to specific intent crimes if it negates the required intent (even if unreasonable); for general intent and malice crimes the mistake must be reasonable. Mistake of law is generally no defense except where it negates a specific intent element or reliance on an official statement later held invalid.

Causation in homicide requires actual cause (but-for) and proximate cause; an intervening cause breaks the chain unless it is a foreseeable response to the defendant's conduct or a dependent intervening cause.

Transferred intent applies when the defendant intends harm to one person but causes similar harm to another; it does not transfer between different crimes or to accomplish unintended results beyond the original mens rea.

Common law murder is unlawful killing with malice aforethought: intent to kill, intent to inflict serious bodily harm, reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (depraved heart), or felony murder.

First-degree murder typically requires premeditation and deliberation (or felony murder by statute); second-degree is all other murder; voluntary manslaughter requires adequate provocation plus no cooling period or imperfect self-defense.

Felony murder limits: the felony must be independent of the killing (merger doctrine), the death must be a foreseeable result, and the defendant must be guilty of the underlying felony; agency vs proximate cause rules vary by jurisdiction for deaths caused by police or co-felons.

Self-defense requires reasonable belief in imminent unlawful force, proportional force, and no initial aggressor status; deadly force is permitted only against deadly force or imminent death/serious bodily harm, with no duty to retreat under the common law castle exception.

Insanity tests: M'Naghten (did not know nature/quality of act or wrongfulness), irresistible impulse, Durham (product of mental disease), and MPC (lacks substantial capacity to appreciate wrongfulness or conform conduct).

Competency to stand trial differs from insanity: it assesses present ability to understand proceedings and assist counsel, and it can be raised at any time, unlike the insanity defense, which addresses mental state at the time of the offense.

Inchoate offenses: attempt requires specific intent plus a substantial step beyond preparation; conspiracy requires agreement plus intent to agree and achieve the objective, with the bilateral vs unilateral rule varying by jurisdiction; solicitation requires intent to have another commit a crime.

Accomplice liability requires intent to assist and actual assistance; the accomplice is liable for the principal's crime and foreseeable crimes in the natural and probable consequences chain, and withdrawal requires repudiation or notification plus neutralization of prior aid.