Not all of these terms are form the book. Some are
paraphrased.
Actus Reas – The opposite of mens reas. This part of
the crime is the act while the mens reas is the “intent”. Also called the
“guilty act”.
Arraignment – An initial step in the criminal process
wherein the defendant is formally charges with an offense, i.e., given a copy
of the complaint or other accusatory instrument.
Arrest – To deprive a person of his liberty by
legal authority, in the technical criminal law sense, seizure of an alleged or
suspected offender to answer for a crime.
Attempt – An overt act, beyond mere preparation,
moving directly toward the actual commission of a substantive offence.
Bail – A monetary or other form of security given
to secure the appearance of the defendant at every stage of the proceedings.
Bill of
attainder – A legislative
act, in ant form, that applies “either to named individuals or to easily
ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them
w/o a judicial trial.”
Causation – The defendant’s action must be a direct
cause of the crime.
Conspiracy – A combination of two or more persons to
commit a criminal or unlawful act, or to commit a lawful act by criminal or
unlawful means. It is essential that there be two or more conspirators; one
cannot conspire with himself.
Criminal
Negligence – The unconscious
creation of risk when a reasonable person would assume that there is some
degree of danger created by the unconscious act.
Cruel and Unusual
Punishment – Such punishment
as is found to be offensive to the ordinary person. The death penalty has been
found not to be cruel and unusual.
Custodial
Interrogation – A type of
questioning which is designed to induce a confession or disclosure of certain
crimes.
Due Process – There are two types of due process,
substantive and procedural. Both are aimed at providing the same treatment for
all people. Substantive due process relates to the creation of law and that no
law should be created with the intent of discriminating against a particular
group of people. Procedural says that the manner in which the judicial system
is ordered must remain constant for all people.
Duress – Any given act was committed w/o the free
will of the individual that is claiming duress. Can be implied towards
statement given or acts committed. If a statement was given under duress it
would mean that the person giving the statement felt that if they hadn’t given
the statement some form of injury would fall on them. A person can also claim
that they were under duress while they committed a crime. This would mean that
they felt if they hadn’t participated in the crime then they would have come to
harm.
Entrapment – This means that the police induced someone
to commit a crime that they might not have otherwise committed.
Equal
protection clause – This
clause of the fourteenth amendment is designed to prohibit any state from
creating a law that doesn’t provide equal protection under the law to all
people.
Exclusionary
Rule – Prohibits the use of
illegally obtained evidence during trial.
Ex post facto – Laws that may an act criminal when it was
not criminal at the time that it was committed.
Felon – Any person that has been convicted of a
felony. Certain requirements of disclosure are placed on them.
Fundamental
Liberties – These rights
include personal intimacies relating to the family, marriage, motherhood,
procreation, and child rearing.
Grand Jury - Composed of people selected at random from
the list of registered voters, decides whether there is reason to believe an
accused has committed an offense, not whether the person is guilty or innocent.
Habeas Corpus - It is used to test the legality of a
persons imprisonment.
Harmless-error
doctrine – An error occurred
but its consequence was so minimal as to make the error irrelevant. “the
constitutional error did not contribute to the jury’s verdict”.
Inchoate crime – Crimes in which the actual crime has not
yet been committed but steps to commit the crime have been. Examples include
solicitation, attempt, and conspiracy.
Indictment – When a grand jury decides that the
evidence presented before it justify a trial they hand down an indictment.
Insanity – A defendant that claims insanity admits to
committing the act, but denies criminal responsibility for the act.
Intoxication – Recognized as a limited defense.
Differentiated between voluntary and involuntary intoxication. For voluntary
only in cases of severe intoxication. IN cases of involuntary i.e. where
someone takes drugs in combination that produce unintentional intoxication.
Investigatory
detention – When police stop
someone to investigate their potential involvement in a crime w/o actually
arresting them. Often time associated with s stop and frisk or a Terry stop.
Knowingly – When he or she is aware that a prohibited
result or harm is very likely to occur, but nevertheless does not consciously
intend the specific consequences that result from the act.
Larceny – The illegal taking of property not
belonging to ones self.
Line-ups – When formal charges are pending the
accused may not be in a line up before witnesses for identification unless the
accused and the accused’s counsel have been notified in advance. Unlike a
line-up a photo array doesn’t have the same trial like confrontation that
requires the presence of the accused.
Mala in se – Crimes that are intrinsically bad such as
rape, robbery, murder, arson and theft.
Mala prohibita – Acts that are illegal only because the law
prohibits them.
Mens rea – a guilty mind; the mental state
accompanying a criminal act.
Misdemeanor – A crime punishable by up to 364 days in
jail or a fine of up to $999.00.
Negligently – Same as recklessly but the act is
unconscious and not conscious.
Nolo contendere – The same as a guilty plea, except it
cannot be used later against the accused as an admission of guilt.
Plea bargain – The process by which the accused agrees to
enter a plea of guilty, often to a lesser offence, in exchange for a promise by
the prosecuting attorney to recommend either a relatively light sentence or a
dismissal of part of the charges.
Preliminary
hearing – A magistrate
examines the facts superficially to determine whether there is a strong enough
cast to hold the arrestee for further proceedings.
Preventive
detention – Laws that enable
people who are thought to be dangerous, or accused of serious crimes could be
denied bail.
Probable cause – When there is evidence that implicates a
certain person in a crime. Relevant to arrests and searches.
Prosecutor – The prosecutor is the trial lawyer of the
sovereignty. The prosecution has extensive resources for investigation at hand,
if during the course of the investigation the prosecutor discovers evidence
which tends to exculpate the defendant it must be turned over, to not do so
would violate the defendants due process rights.
Proximate cause – This permits fact finders to sort through
the cases in order to find out
who is responsible
for the result.
Purposely – When he or she has a conscious desire to
produce a prohibited result or harm.
Recklessly – When a person consciously disregards the
welfare of others and creates a significant and unjustifiable risk.
Solicitation – A specific intent crime committed by a
person who asks, hires, or encourages another to commit a crime.
Specific Intent – Requires an actus reas plus the additional
knowledge of the intent to commit an additional felony.
Status crime – A type of crime that makes it illegal to
be a certain way. The Sup. Ct. has ruled that such laws are not valid and do
not obtain a wrongful act.
Strict
liability – This represents
a major exception to the requirement that there be a concurrence between the
criminal act and criminal intent. In such offenses, the offended poses a
generalized threat to society at large.
Suspect
classification – A
classification that is used to construct a law. These types of laws are held up
to extreme scrutiny and are justified only by a “compelling” state interest.
Vicarious
liability – Employers can be
held responsible for the acts of their employees that occur within the course
and scope of employment.
Warrant –Issued if the magistrate decides that (1)
the evidence supports the belief that (2) probable cause exists to believe that
(3) a crime has been committed and that (4) the suspect is the probable
culprit.
Writ – In reference to the material here it is
talking about a writ of habeas corpus. It is used to test the legality
of a persons’ imprisonment.
The four components
of a criminal offense are:
The four
categories of intent are: