Chapter 9 – Criminal Law and Procedure

Criminal Law

• Criminal law defines for society:
  • What behaviors are illegal
  • How lawbreakers should be punished

 Criminal Law

• Crime
  • An activity that has been prohibited by the legislature as violating a duty owed to society, prosecuted by the government, with the possibility of punishment of a fine, imprisonment, or even death.

Due Process

• Is guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments 
• Provides for notice and a hearing before one is deprived of property or liberty

Classification

• The two main classes of crimes are:
  • Felonies
  • Misdemeanors

Classification

• Crimes can be further classified based on   type of harm to society and include:
  • Harm to persons
  • Crimes against habitation and property
  • Crimes against public health, safety & decency
  • Crimes affecting governmental functions

Classifications of Crime Based on Harm

• Harm to Persons
  • Homicide Crimes
    • Murder, Manslaughter, Negligent Homicide
  • Other Crimes against persons
    • Assault, Batter, Child Abandonment, Kidnapping, Rape, Robbery, Stalking
• Crimes against Habitations and Property
  • Arson, Burglary, Forgery, Receiving Stolen property, Shoplifting, Theft, Trespass
• Crimes against public health, safety and decency
  • Alcohol offenses, child pornography, disorderly conduct, drug offenses, obscenity, Prostitution
• Crimes affecting governmental functions
  • Bribery, Perjury, Treason

Elements of a Crime

• For a crime to take place there must be:
  • Mens rea (bad intent)
  • Actus reus (bad act)

Intent

• Under common law, intent is divided into:
  • General intent (Intention to act without regard to results of the act.)
  • Specific intent (Intention to act and cause a specific result.)

Parties to the Crime

• Parties to a crime may include the:
  • Principal
  • Accomplice
  • Accessory before the fact
  • Accessory after the fact

Defenses

• Defenses to a crime include:
  • Alibi Defense
  • Ignorance or Mistake
  • Status: infancy, Insanity and Intoxication
  • Duress and Necessity
  • Entrapment
  • Self Defense
  • Constitutional Defenses

 Insanity Defense

• The standards used to determine insanity are:
  • M’Naghten or “Right from Wrong” Test
  • Irresistible Impulse Test
  • Substantial Capacity Test (MPC)

Self Defense

• The following conditions must be met to use force in self defense:
  • Defender was not initiator of the violence
  • Threat of bodily harm was immediate
  • Once threatening party ceases threat, right of self-defense disappears
  • Force can be no more than reasonably necessary

Constitutional Defenses

• Constitutional defenses include:
  • Fifth Amendment double jeopardy clause
  • Void for vagueness and overbreadth
  • Violation of First Amendment rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech

Double Jeopardy

• A constitutional protection against being tried twice for the same crime.

Criminal Procedure

• Criminal Procedure
  • Process dictated by criminal justice system to protect society from unjust prosecutions.
• Rules of Criminal Procedure
  • Federal and state rules that regulate how criminal proceedings are conducted.

• The federal and state rules of criminal procedure govern everything from investigation and arrest through sentencing and appeals.
• The federal and state rules of evidence regulate what types of evidence can be used in the trial and how it must be presented. The goal of these rules is to protect all of society, even alleged criminals, from unjust prosecutions.

Stop and Frisk

• The right of the police to detain an individual for a brief period of time and to search the outside of the person’s clothing if the police have a reasonable suspicion that the individual has committed or is about to commit a crime.

 Reasonable Suspicion

• A suspicion based on specific facts; less than probable cause.

 Arrest and Probable Cause

• Arrest:  occurs when the police restrain a person’s freedom and charge the person with a crime
• Probable cause:  not susceptible to a precise definition; a belief based on specific facts that a crime has been or is about to be committed; more than a reasonable suspicion.

 Chain of Custody

• A record identifying who had control and access to evidentiary materials from the time they were obtained until the time they are introduced into evidence.

Searches and Seizures of Evidence

• The same Fourth Amendment requirements that apply to arrest also apply to searches of people’s homes, businesses, motor vehicles, suitcases, computers, and other personal possessions.
• Just as law enforcement officials must be able to show probable cause to seize a person, they must also be able to establish probable cause before they can carry out a search or seize contraband or other evidence of a crime.

Exigent Circumstances Justifying
Warrantless Searches

• Warrantless searches do not violate Fourth Amendment where there are exigent circumstances such as:
  • Plain View
  • Consent
  • Emergency
  • Hot pursuit
  • Incident to lawful arrest

Search Warrant

• A court’s prior permission for the police to search and seize.

 Probable Cause

• A belief based on specific facts that a crime has been or is about to be committed; more than a reasonable suspicion.

Miranda Warnings

• Suspect advised of following rights:
  • The right to remain silent
  • That anything said can be used against the suspect in a court of law
  • The right to the presence of an attorney
  • That if the suspect cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed prior to any questioning

Booking

• The process after arrest that includes taking the defendant’s personal information, giving the defendant an opportunity to read and sign a Miranda card, and allowing the defendant the opportunity to use a telephone.

Plea Bargaining

• A process whereby the prosecutor and the defendant’s attorney agree for the defendant to plead guilty in exchange for the prosecutor’s promise to charge him or her with a lesser offense, drop some additional charges, or request a lesser sentence.

Grand Jury

• A group of people, usually 23, whose function is to determine if probable cause exists to believe that a crime has been committed and that the defendant committed it.
• Indictment:  a grand jury’s written accusation that a given individual has committed a crime.

Preliminary Hearing

• A hearing where the prosecutor must present sufficient evidence to convince the judge that there is probable cause to believe the named individual committed the crimes for which the defendant is being charged. 

Arraignment

• A criminal proceeding at which the court informs the defendant of the charges being brought against him or her and the defendant enters a plea.

Evidence

• Inculpatory evidence:  evidence that suggests the defendant’s guilt.
• Exculpatory evidence:  evidence that suggests the defendant’s innocence.

Pretrial Motions

• Some typical pretrial motions include:
  • Motion to suppress
  • Motion to dismiss
  • Motion to compel
  • Motion to sever
  • Motion to bifurcate
  • Motion in limine

Sentencing

• With the exception of capital punishment cases, where statutes frequently give the defendant the option of having the jury decide if the death penalty should be imposed, the jury usually has no role to play in the sentencing process.
• Once the jury has found the defendant guilty of a specified crime, the judge is responsible for determining what the sentence will be.

Appeals

• Criminal defendants who wishes to appeal a conviction must file the appropriate post-trial motions, usually accompanied by a notice of appeal.
• There is a specified time during which an appeal may be filed.
• Because the Supreme Court has determined that this is a jurisdictional requirement, the courts are without power to hear an appeal filed beyond the deadline.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

• A court order to produce the person detained
• Designed to give a neutral judge an opportunity to review the charges, to ensure there is a lawful basis for the incarceration