Criminal Law and Procedure
Scope
Criminal Law and Procedure covers common-law crimes and defenses plus the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. Michigan adds its own wrinkles: the Self-Defense Act, MCL 780.951, presumes reasonable fear for a person lawfully present in a dwelling or vehicle who is not committing a crime, and felony murder under MCL 750.316 requires an enumerated felony committed in one continuous transaction.
Substantive law
- Mens rea: specific intent crimes (burglary, larceny, assault with intent) permit voluntary intoxication and mistake defenses; malice and general intent crimes do not.
- Accomplice liability needs intent to assist plus conduct that assists; the accomplice is liable for foreseeable crimes within the enterprise.
- Attempt needs intent plus a substantial step beyond preparation.
- Self-defense: reasonable belief in imminent unlawful force; deadly force only against imminent death or serious harm; an initial aggressor must withdraw.
Procedure
- Fourth Amendment: probable cause for arrests and full searches; reasonable suspicion for Terry stops, with a frisk requiring reasonable suspicion of armed danger.
- Recurring exceptions: search incident to arrest, automobile, consent, exigency, inventory. The exclusionary rule reaches evidence and its fruits, limited by good faith, attenuation, and independent source.
- Fifth Amendment: custody plus interrogation triggers Miranda. Sixth Amendment counsel attaches at the initiation of formal proceedings and is offense-specific.
Worked example
An officer stops a car for a burned-out taillight, then orders the passenger out with no other suspicion. Under Maryland v. Wilson the order is lawful: after a valid traffic stop, officers may order drivers and passengers out as a safety measure. A frisk of the passenger still requires reasonable suspicion that he is armed.
Traps
Treating Miranda as a general evidence rule; assuming counsel attaches at arrest; and forgetting that felony murder requires only intent to commit the underlying felony.