Crim Law

Proportionality

Diminshed Capacity

Entrapment

GO OVER

Tags: Duress

A claimed good-faith belief need not be reasonable in order to be considered as a defense.

A mistake may be a valid defense if it negates the mens rea element of a crime.

• NEED TO CHECK THIS OUT
• Tags: "Defenses"

Public welfare crimes do not require mens rea

***NEED TO LOOK OVER

Strict Liability

Tags: Mens Rea

ACT MUST BE VOLUNTARY

THERE MUST BE AN ACT- PUNISHMENT BARRED BY 8TH AMENDMENT

• 1. "addicted to use" of narcotics is a condition or status, not an act
• 2. Addiction is not always voluntary (can result from medically prescribed drugs, can be addict from moment of birth)
• 3. Punishment would be cruel and unusual under 8th amendment
• i. court says punishment for narcotics addiction is like punishing someone
• with a venereal disease, mentally ill, being a leper, or the common cold

• It is NOT unconstitutional under the 14th amendment (due process clause) to burden a defendant with proving the affirmative defense
• in this case: extreme emotional disturbance as defined by New York law, reducing murder to manslaughter

Tags: Proof of Guilt to the Jury, 14th amendment, affirmative defense

• Mens Rea
• *check to make sure we read this

• -a law cannot be so vague that a person of ordinary intelligence can not figure out what is innocent activity and what is illegal
• -in this case loitering ordinance does not provide specific limitations on enforcement discretion of the police and too little notice to citizens who wish to use city streets

Tags: Precision in Definition, loitering

UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDER 8TH AMENDMENT TO IMPOSE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ON OFFENDER LESS THAN 18 YRS OLD WHEN COMMITED CRIME

Tags: Proportionality, 8th amendment, capital punishment, "cruel and unusual punishment"

• 1. A fraudulent
• 2. conversion of
• 3. the property
• 4. of another
• 5. by one who is already in lawful posession of it