CRIMINAL LAW

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CRIMINAL LAW
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Constitutional Law

• 1. Federal Constitution
• Supreme law of the land, binds all States
• 2. State Constitution
• May add rights to people but not take away any
  granted in the Federal
• 3. Federal Courts
• Enforce Federal laws and hear appeals
• 4. State Courts
• Trial Courts and Appellate Courts for the State

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Statutory Law

• 1. Written laws enacted by the Legislature.
• A. All crimes are statutory in California
• B If there is no statute there is no crime
• If there is no punishment provides there is still
  no crime,
• The punishments are usually listed in the same
  section as the crime
• C. There are no ex post facto laws
• D. City and County ordinances are also
  enforceable if they are criminal (prescribed
  penalties.)

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Case Law

• 1. Case law is the result of Appellate Court
  decisions.
• A. The principal in use is precedent
• 1. The Court interprets the Constitution
• 2. Clarifies the Statute
• 2. Judicial Review
• A. This limits the powers of the Legislature

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Nuances of Written Law

• 1. Letter of the law
• 2. Sprit of the Law
• 3. Interpretation of the law
• A. What is its relationship to other statutes
• B. What was the intent of the Legislative Body
• C. What is the meaning of the words.

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Criminal Law vs Civil Law

• 1. Criminal Law deals with violations of
  Criminal Statutes.
• A. These are crimes
• B. The victim is the State of California
• 2. Civil Law deals with noncriminal violations or
  Civil Wrongs.
• A. The purpose is redress, or to right a
  wrong. Under civil law, the injured party
  may file a lawsuit for monetary compensation or
  other relief, not including incarceration.
  These are called TORTS

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Civil Wrong

• Act or negligence may be a tort if it violates
  a legal duty owed to another person.
• Tort actions may also be criminal acts.

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Definition of a Crime

• 1. A crime is a violation of a criminal statute.
• A. an act committed in violation of a law
  forbidding it or commanding it
• B. And to which is annexed upon conviction a
  penalty which provides the following
  punishments.

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Punishments

• 1. a penalty of death,
• 2. Imprisonment, fine,
• 3. Removal from public office, or
  disqualification from holding public office.

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Elements of Crime

• An act or omission (failure to act)
• In violation of a statute
• For which a punishment is affixed
• Basic elements Penal Code Section 20 states that
  "in every crime or public offense, there must be
  to every crime that there exists a union, or
  joint operation of act and intent, or criminal
  negligence

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Elements summarized

• Elements of crime must be established
• Act or failure to act
• Required intent
• Union of the two
• IF THE ELEMENTS CANT BE PROVEN, THE CASE MUST BE
  DISMISSED

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Intent

• In every crime there must be a criminal act and
  a related intent, or criminal negligence.
• The key to understanding intent is to understand
  the way criminal act and intent are related.

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Example

• A person may strike another with his fist not
  intending to commit great bodily injury.
  However, as a result of the blow, the person
  dies. In order to prove him guilty of murder,
  you must prove that he intended to kill him.
  Without that intent, he cannot be guilty of
  murder.

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What is Intent

• State of mind inferred from evidence.
• Type required varies with crime charged.
• Refers to the accused state of mind during the
  commission of the crime.
• Four types
• General (Presumed)
• Specific
• Criminal negligence
• Transferred

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General Intent

• Accused merely intended to commit the act that
  the law deem illegal. When a person performs an
  illegal act, general intent is presumed.
• Presumed intent.
• No showing of specific intent required.
• No knowledge of violating the law required.
• Good examples are traffic violations.

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Specific Intent

• Particular state of mind.
• Determination to commit the act.
• Cannot be presumed.
• Usually written into the statute
• With the intent to

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Transferred Intent

• Intended act misses target and falls upon third
  party.
• When an unlawful act affects a person other than,
  or in addition to, the person it was intended to
  affect, the intent becomes transferred intent.
  Criminal intent in these instances is transferred
  from the intended victim to the unintended
  victim.
• Intended act must be unlawful.

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Criminal Negligence

• Failure to exercise the care of a reasonable
  person under like situations.
• Becomes a legal substitute for intent.

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• Criminal Prosecution

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Crime Classifications

• Felony P.C. 17
• These are the most serious of crimes, punishable
  by death or imprisonment in a state prison or by
  fine or removal from office.

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Crime Classifications

• Misdemeanor P.C. 19
• These are less serious than felonies, and are
  punishable by imprisonment in a county jail,
  fine, or both imprisonment and fine.

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Crime Classifications

• A person charged with a felony or misdemeanor is
  entitled to the following
• A jury or court trial.
• Defense by an attorney appointed at public
  expense (if the defendant cannot afford one).

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Crime Classifications

• Infractions P.C. 19.6
• Instead of a formal arrest and booking,
  infractions involve the issuance of a citation
  Notice to Appear

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Crime Classifications

• Infractions Cont.
• These are the least serious of crimes and are
  not punishable by imprisonment but by fine only.
  A person charged with an infraction is not
  entitled to the following
• A trial by jury.
• Defense by a public defender appointed at the
  public expense.

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Crime Classifications

• Wobbler
• A wobbler is a crime that may be prosecuted in
  either of two crime classifications defined by
  statute.
• Law Enforcement typically treat all these as
  felonies. Prosecutors will decide which to
  charge.

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Parties to a crime

• Principal
• P.C. 31
• Accessory
• P.C. 32
• Accomplice
• P.C. 1111

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Principals

• 1. All persons involved in the commission of a
  felony or misdemeanor. All principals are
  equally guilty and can be arrested and
  prosecuted.
• 2. Persons are principal parties to a crime only
  if there is proof that they had the required
  criminal intent
• 3. A principal need not be present during the
  actual commission of the crime.

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Principal

• A principal is a person who does one of the
  following
• Aids and abets in the commission of a crime
• Advises and encourages its commission (even if
  not present).
• Gets another drunk person to commit a crime.
• Gets another person to commit a crime by threats
  or coercion.
• Counseling a child under 14 to commit a crime.

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• A person aids and abets in the commission of a
  crime if he or she actively abetting assists,
  supports, promotes, encourages, strengthens, or
  instigates by act or advice the commission of the
  offense. The person who aids and abets, must have
  knowledge of the unlawful purpose (intent) of the
  actual perpetrator of the crime. While aid and
  abet are similar in meaning, abet implies having
  a guilty knowledge and felonious intent that aid
  does not have

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Accessory

• After a Felony has been committed
• Knowingly harbors, conceals, or aids a principal
• With intent to avoid arrest, trial, conviction,
  or punishment
• There can only be accessories to felonies

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Accomplice

• Co-principal who testifies against another
  principal.
• Crime partner rolls over on his buddy
• An accomplices testimony must be supported by
  other known facts to be accepted by the court.

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Feigned Accomplice

• A feigned accomplice to a crime is a person who
  pretends to consult and accomplice with another
  in the planning or commission of a crime only for
  the purpose of discovering the perpetrator's
  plans and obtaining evidence. (U.C. or C.I.)
• The feigned accomplice may be acting under the
  direction of a law enforcement officer or on his
  or her own initiative. Unlike a true accomplice,
  the feigned accomplice has no criminal intent and
  is not guilty of the offense.

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Legally Incapable of Committing a Crime

• Certain people are presumed by the law to be
  legally incapable of forming the necessary intent
  and therefore are incapable of committing crimes.

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• Penal Code Section 26 identifies those
  individuals who are presumed as persons not
  capable of forming the designated state of mind
  and of committing a crime.

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• Children under age 14
• The exception occurs if it can be shown that at
  the time of the crime, the juvenile knew the
  wrongfulness of the act. Such a finding is a
  legal question determined by the court, not by
  individual officers. Officers should record any
  evidence that could have a bearing on this
  factor.
• Idiots (0-24)
• Acts committed under ignorance or mistaken fact.
• Not conscious of the act.
• Act committed by misfortune or accident.
• Life was in danger, when the crime did not
  involve death.