Criminal Law

Criminal Law Rules of Law
The following contains the Rules of Law you'll need for the Criminal Law Practice Exam. These rules are presented in outline form only for purposes of the practice exam.

NOTE: Some rules are stated with elements that must be proven. Other rules are just stated without being broken into elements. In the latter case, you should figure out what the elements of the crime are yourself and incorporate that into your answer.

Conspiracy
Rape
Attempted Rape
Murder
Accessory After the Fact

Conspiracy
A person is guilty of conspiracy if:

Two or more people agree to commit a crime, and

the people intended to enter into the agreement, and

at least one of the conspirators commits some overt act (such as some act of preparation) that furthers the conspiracy.

NOTE: A party is guilty of conspiracy when these elements are satisfied. The actual crime does not have to occur in order to hold someone accountable for conspiracy.

NOTE: A conspirator is guilty of all the crimes that his co-conspirator commits that 1) further the conspiracy and 2) were foreseeable.

Defense to Subsequent Crimes

Withdrawal
A person who is guilty of conspiracy does not have a valid defense if they withdraw, however, he has a valid defense to the subsequent crimes of the conspirators if he does the following:

engages in an affirmative act, and

the affirmative act gives notice to all co-conspirators that he is withdrawing, and

the co-conspirators have enough time to halt their plans to commit the crime.

Rape
Common Law rape is present if the following elements occur:

sexual intercourse between a female and a male, who is not her husband

AND the female does not consent.

Lack of consent is present where

the intercourse occurs by force or

the intercourse occurs by threats of force or

the female is unable to consent because she is unconscious

Attempted Crimes
A person can be charged with an attempted crime (such as "attempted rape" or "attempted murder") even though the criminal did not complete all of the elements necessary to make the person guilty of the actual crime.

The following must occur for a person to be guilty of an attempted crime.
Criminal shows intent to commit a crime, and

the criminal comes dangerously close to successfully completing the crime but somehow does not complete all of the required elements.

Murder
Murder occurs when the following elements are satisfied:

killing of a human being

with malice aforethought.

Malice aforethought exists if any one of the following states of mind exists in the person committing the act:

intent to kill, or

intent to cause substantial injury, or

reckless indifference to risk that a person may die, or

intent to commit a felony (See felony murder).

Felony Murder
A criminal is guilty of felony murder if a death occurred while the criminal committed or attempted to commit a felony that is inherently dangerous.

An inherently dangerous felony includes any one of the following:

Arson
Battery
Burglary
Kidnapping
Mayhem
Rape
Robbery


Accessory
Someone who does not actually commit a crime may be guilty as an accessory after the fact if the following elements of the crime are met.

Must have knowledge that a felony has been committed.

Must aid or assist the felon in some way.

The purpose of the aid must be to help the felon escape from the authorities.

Criminal Law Practice Exam
Instructions:
Read the following fact pattern, and answer the question. Give yourself 90 minutes to complete this exam. Do not go over the time limit.

We recommend that you take this exam only after you have completed your study of Rape, Murder and related issues. If necessary, review the Criminal Law Rules of Law before starting this exam.

Once you have completed the practice exam in the time allotted, then compare your answer with this Criminal Law Sample Answer.



Criminal Law Fact Pattern
Five male university students (Abe, Bob, Chris, Dan and Edward) were on Spring Break. They met a young woman named Mary who they lured back to their hotel room. The guys made repeated sexual advances to Mary. She rebuffed the sexual advances from all of the students except for Dan. Mary said she would have sex with Dan but not with the others.

Abe said, "If Mary isn't willing to have sex with all of us, then we'll have to force her. Are you guys with me?" Bob nodded his assent. Chris, Dan and Edward just stood there and did not respond. Mary objected and said she wanted to leave. Abe locked the door so Mary couldn't get out.

Bob suddenly had a change of heart and said, "I'm not going to go through with it, and I think all of you should stop as well." At that point, Bob left the hotel room and went to his own room, but didn't do anything further.

Abe then forcibly held Mary down and proceeded to have intercourse. Chris, who was very drunk, then said "I'm going to force her to have sex with me too." He took his clothes off and got up on the bed. However, before he actually had intercourse with Mary, Chris passed out from the alcohol. In relief that she wouldn't be forced to have sex again, Mary passed out.

Dan decided that since Mary had said she wanted to have sex with him, it was OK and he proceeded to have sexual intercourse with the unconscious Mary. After Dan had sex with Mary, Mary woke up and started screaming. Afraid that someone would hear the screaming Mary, Abe choked her until she was dead. Edward just watched the whole time and said and did nothing.

After Mary died, Abe, Chris and Dan went to Bob's bedroom. Edward went back to his bedroom and did nothing. Abe, Chris and Dan told Bob everything that had happened. Bob said that Abe, Chris and Dan could spend the night in his room so that they wouldn't be found with the dead body. The next morning, the police found Mary and arrested all five students.

Question: What crimes are the students guilty of? Are there any possible defenses?

For purposes of this question, consider battery and assault to be lesser-included offenses under the greater charge of rape. Also, do not cite cases or precedent for this question. In your actual exam, you may want to cite cases depending on what your professor wants. However, because casebooks vary widely between schools, we have not included cases in the sample answer or analysis.



Once you have completed the practice exam in the time allotted, then compare your answer with this Criminal Law Sample Answer.

Criminal Law Sample Answer
The following is a sample answer to the Criminal Law Practice Exam. If you have not already done so, take the exam and then compare your answer to this sample. If necessary, you can also review the Criminal Law Rules of Law for this exam. Since law school professors vary in what they consider excellent work, this answer is only presented as a sample.



Conspiracy
The agreement to commit rape gives rise to the issue of whether any of the students are guilty of conspiracy to commit rape.

The common law rule for conspiracy requires that two or more people actually agree and intend to agree to commit a crime and that one conspirator commits some overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.

Here, A asked whether the other men would forcibly have non-consensual intercourse with a woman who was not their wife, which is the definition of common law rape (see below). B agreed by nodding his head. If any of the defendants had intended to just play along, then the intent element required for conspiracy would be absent and the party would be not guilty of the charge. However, there is nothing shown on the facts to suggest that any of the defendants had a different intent than that which their words and gestures showed. When A actually locked the door of the room, this was an overt act, which prepared for the crime. These elements, taken together, are sufficient to make A and B guilty of conspiracy without any further action on their part. Since C, D and E never agreed, they are not guilty of conspiracy.

B effectively withdrew from the conspiracy because he engaged in an affirmative act that gave notice to the other conspirator - A- that he was withdrawing and there was enough time for A to halt his plan to rape Mary. While this does not provide B with a defense for the conspiracy charge, it does give him a defense against the charges of subsequent crimes by A.



Rape
The next issue is whether any of the students are guilty of rape.

The rule on common law rape requires sexual intercourse between a female and a male, who is not her husband, and where the female does not consent. The lack of consent can be shown if the intercourse occurs by force, threats of force or if the female is unable to consent because of unconsciousness.

Here, A and D are both males who had intercourse with Mary, a female, who was not the wife of any of the guys. B, C and E never had intercourse with Mary and thus are not guilty of rape.

Mary showed a lack of consent to have sex with A before the actual conspiracy began. She again showed her lack of consent when she objected as the conspiracy began. Finally, the mere use of force in A's case showed that there was no consent.

In the case of D, the issue is not as clear cut. Although she had agreed to have sex with D prior to the conspiracy, the fact of the conspiracy, false imprisonment and rape by A would probably result in any reasonable person changing their mind. Furthermore, since she was in a state of unconsciousness, this manifests a lack of consent under the law. While D may have a defense of consent, it all likelihood, he is also guilty of rape.



Attempted Rape
The issue is whether C is guilty of attempted rape.

Under the common law, a defendant is guilty of an attempted crime when the criminal shows intent to commit a crime and comes dangerously close to successfully completing the crime.

Here, C showed his intent to commit the crime of rape by stating that he intended to force Mary to have sex. He came dangerously close because he took his clothes off and got on the bed until he finally passed out. Although he never actually had intercourse with Mary and thus is not guilty of rape, he came quite close to completing the crime and thus can be charged with attempted rape.



Murder
The next issue is whether any of the defendants is guilty of murder.

Common law murder requires a killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Malice aforethought exists if there is intent to kill, intent to cause substantial injury, reckless indifference to the risk that a person may die or intent to commit a felony.

Here, Abe choked Mary, another human being, until she was dead. Malice aforethought is shown because Abe's choking Mary was, at very least, reckless as to the risk that a person will die. It is common knowledge that cutting off the air to a person by choking him may cause him to stop breathing and die. Abe has no reasonable defense under these circumstances. If a jury finds that he was not reckless, then he can be brought in under the felony murder rule.

Common law felony murder exists if a death occurred while a criminal committed a felony that is inherently dangerous. Rape is considered an inherently dangerous felony.

Since A and D both committed rape and Mary died while still within the time and place of the crime, both are guilty of felony murder. It is less clear whether attempted rape is an inherently dangerous crime and whether C would also be guilty of felony murder. Here the issue probably hinges on intent. In Felony Murder, malice is inferred from the intent to commit the underlying dangerous felony. Since C intended to commit the crime of rape, malice should be inferred to the same degree that it is in the case of A and D. Therefore, following that theory, it was as if C had actually committed the rape and therefore would be guilty of the crime of felony murder.

Since B withdrew from the conspiracy, he is not responsible for the crimes of his fellow co-conspirators and therefore is not guilty of felony murder or murder.

Accessory to Rape and Homicide
The issue is whether B is guilty as an accessory after the fact to rape and murder.

The common law rule on accessory after the fact requires that a defendant have knowledge that a felony was committed and aided or assisted the felon in some way to avoid being caught by the authorities.

Here, B knew of the crimes because A, C and D told him. Because he let them stay in his room in order that they wouldn't be found with a dead body, one can reasonably conclude that he was helping them escape detection by the police. Thus, B is guilty of being an accessory after the fact to rape and homicide.

It should be noted that E had no part in any of the crimes. Although he was a witness to the events, that does not make him guilty of the crimes since he neither acted nor showed any intent to act. Furthermore, he was not an accessory after the fact because he did not aid in the others escape. He went to his own room after the events. Although an argument could be made that he complied in the crimes, there is no actus reus that suggests he could be found guilty for any of the crimes.