NG Bar Part I Criminal Law cheat sheet

Actus reus requires a voluntary physical act or an omission where a legal duty to act exists; status alone (e.g., addiction) cannot be criminalized.

Specific intent crimes (burglary, larceny with intent to permanently deprive, assault, first-degree premeditated murder, solicitation, conspiracy, attempt) require purpose or knowledge plus the stated intent; malice, general intent, and strict liability crimes do not.

Malice crimes (murder, arson) 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; the defendant need only commit the actus reus, and the defense of mistake is unavailable.

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

Transferred intent applies when the defendant intends to harm one person but harms another; the intent transfers to the actual victim, and the defendant remains liable for the intended victim's harm.

Conspiracy requires an agreement between two or more persons with intent to achieve an unlawful objective plus an overt act where the statute requires it; under the bilateral approach both parties must genuinely agree, while the unilateral approach requires only one genuine party.

Withdrawal from a conspiracy requires an affirmative act that communicates withdrawal to all co-conspirators, and it defeats liability only for subsequent crimes, not for the conspiracy itself.

Attempt requires specific intent to commit the target crime plus a substantial step beyond mere preparation; legal impossibility is a defense, factual impossibility is not, and abandonment is generally not a defense once the substantial step is taken.

Self-defense permits reasonable force, including deadly force, against an imminent unlawful threat of death or serious bodily harm; the initial aggressor must withdraw before claiming the defense unless the other party escalates to deadly force.

Imperfect self-defense reduces murder to voluntary manslaughter where the defendant honestly but unreasonably believed force was necessary.

Duress is a defense to all crimes except intentional homicide; necessity is a defense only to lesser harms and not to homicide.

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

First-degree murder requires premeditation and deliberation or felony murder; second-degree murder is all other murder, including depraved-heart killings; manslaughter is either voluntary (heat of passion, imperfect self-defense) or involuntary (criminal negligence or misdemeanor manslaughter).

Felony murder applies to deaths during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony; the death must be foreseeable, the felony must be independent of the killing, and the defendant must be guilty of the underlying felony.

Solicitation is complete upon asking another to commit a crime and merges into the completed offense; it is not a defense that the person solicited refuses.

Accomplice liability extends to crimes the principal commits that are the natural and probable consequence of the aided offense; mere knowledge without assistance is insufficient.

Mistake of fact is a defense when it negates the mens rea required for the crime; mistake of law is generally not a defense except where it negates a specific intent element.