Criminal Law Cheat Sheet
Party Liability
principal person who actually commits
the actus reus of the crime
Accomplice person who aids or abets the
principal prior to or during the
crime; must intend to help
principal; mere knowledge is
insufficient
Accomplice
Liability for
Other
Crimes
accomplice is liable for any
crimes that are the natural
and probable consequence of
the accomplice’s conduct
Withdrawal to legally withdraw, an
accomplice must repudiate
prior act, do all that is
possible to countermand prior
assistance, and do so before
the Chaim of motion is
unstoppable
Accessory
after the
fact
person who aids a felon to
avoid apprehension after the
felony is committed; must
know felony was committed
Responsibility- Insanity
M'Naughten The defendant is not guilty if,
because of a mental disease
or defect, the defendant did
not know either (i) the nature
and quality of the act, or (ii)
the wrongfulness of the act.
Responsibility- Insanity (cont)
Irresi‐
stible
Impulse
The defendant is not guilty if a
mental disease or defect
prevented him from being able to
conform his conduct to the law.
Durham
Rule
The defendant is not guilty if the
crime would not have been
committed but for the mental
disease or defect.
Model
Penal
Code
The defendant is not guilty if a
mental disease or defect either
prevents the defendant from
knowing the wrongfulness of the
conduct or prevents the
defendant from being able to
conform his conduct to the law
Responsibility- Intoxication
Voluntary is a defense to specific intent
crimes if the intoxication
prevents the formation of the
required intent; not a defense to
crimes involving malice, reckle‐
ssness, or negligence, or for
strict-liability crimes
Involu‐
ntary
Dissol‐
ution
defense to both general and
specific intent crimes, as well
as malice crimes when the
intoxication serves to negate an
element of the crime
Responsibility- Mistake of Fact
General
Intent
Only reasonable mistake may be
used as a defense
Specific
Intent
Any mistake of fact is a potential
defense; even unreasonable
mistakes
Homicide
Killing a
person
a living person must die
Causation Actual and Proximate Cause
(Intervening or Superseding
causes)
Common
Law
Murder
the unlawful killing of a human
being committed with malice
aforethought
Malice
aforet‐
hought
intent to kill, intent to inflict
serious bodily harm, reckless
indifference to an unjustifiably
high risk to human life, intent
to commit a felony
Felony
Murder
a defendant can be found
guilty for the unintended but
foreseeable killing that is
proximately caused by or
during the commission or
attempted commission of an
inherently dangerous felony;
BARRK
Defenses
to Felony
Murder
death was unforeseeable;
point of safety
Death of
a
bystander
(majority
rule)
defendant will not be liable for
the death of a bystander
caused by a police officer or
as a result of resistance by the
victim of the felony because
neither person is the felon’s
agent. KEY=agency
