Crim multiple choice practice

A defendant is convicted on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder. During the sentencing phase, the prosecutor makes the following statement: “the defendant deserves to be punished for a very long time. His actions—killing two innocent people—represent the worst possible moral violation possible. We will never be able to bring the victims back. They are gone forever. The defendant deserves to suffer for his crimes and suffer for a long time.” The prosecutor’s argument is:

A judge is sentencing a defendant who committed armed robbery and stole more than $10,000 from a bank. The defense lawyer in the case tells the judge that his client should receive no prison time. To support his argument, he notes that his client was severely injured during the bank robbery and is now physically incapable of repeating the crime, so a prison term is not needed to convince the defendant not to return to a life of crime. Is this a retributive argument?

A city has a problem with illegal narcotics. In the last two years, the police have responded to 300 heroin overdoses, 50 of which were fatal. Arrests for possessing and selling illegal narcotics have skyrocketed. Many of the arrests involve individuals who have prior drug convictions. The city's district court decided to create a special drug court with jurisdiction over all narcotics offenses. The judges in the court use jail as a last resort and prefer to sentence the defendants to drug rehabilitation centers so that they can end their addictions, followed by community service. How can we describe the program?

A driver is driving down the street in his sedan. He is speeding, crosses the median into oncoming traffic, and hits a car traveling in the opposite direction. A passenger in that car is severely injured. The driver is not injured; he does not assist the passenger and does not call 911. There is a pedestrian walking nearby who sees the accident but refuses to render assistance or call 911. The prosecutor wants to charge someone for his or her failure to act. The state legislature recently passed a new statute that requires anyone witnessing an accident to call 911 if he or she can safely do so without personal risk. Who can the prosecutor charge?

A man is at his friend’s house and is very intoxicated after smoking a large amount of cannabis. The police arrive at the house and drag him from inside the doorway of his house into the street. The man is arrested there and charged with appearing in public while in an intoxicated state, a misdemeanor in that state punishable by up to one year in jail. Can the man be convicted of this offense?

A woman’s arm hits a man in the jaw causing significant damage and requiring medical attention. The police arrive and the woman concedes that it was her arm that caused the damage to the man's jaw. The police charge the woman with assault. At trial, the woman offers uncontested evidence that the physical movement of her arm was the result of an epileptic seizure. Did the state’s proof satisfy the actus reus requirement?

A thirty-year-old woman is at home with her two-year-old daughter. The woman’s new boyfriend is also at the house visiting for the day. The boyfriend is not the father of the daughter and does not live in the house with them. The woman is a addicted to drugs and frequently harms her daughter by physically assaulting her. One day, the woman is particularly enraged and hits the daughter so hard that the girl dies. The boyfriend does nothing to stop the assault and does not call 911 when he realizes that the girl is injured. The woman is charged with murder. Can the boyfriend be charged as well?

A person entered a high school without permission and took an amount of cash less than $1,000. Two days later, she went back in the high school without permission and took a laptop out of a student’s locker. The next day, she again entered the school without permission and took another laptop, a desktop computer, a TV/DVD player, a pair of shoes, a video game, and a digital picture frame. Two weeks later, the person again entered the school without permission, and then went over to the church next door, broke a window, and took $200 in cash. The person was charged with several counts of burglary, theft, criminal trespass, and vandalism. At the sentencing hearing, the judge said he considered the following factors: that the defendant had a previous history of criminal convictions, these crimes were committed while on probation, that less restrictive measures than confinement had recently and frequently been applied unsuccessfully, and that the defendant had poor potential for reform, based on her lack of work history. The judge sentenced the defendant to the maximum sentence of six years’ incarceration. Which theory of punishment is most reflected in the judge’s considerations in deciding to sentence the defendant to the maximum amount of incarceration?

One man hits another man on the top of the head with a frying pan for the purpose of killing him. The victim falls to the ground and is completely unconscious. The agressor sees the victim motionless on the ground and believes that the victim is dead. In fact, he is still alive. Later that day, with the intention of disposing of the victim’s body, the aggressor wraps up the victim in a rug, goes to a nearby river, and dumps him in the water. At this point, the victim drowns. Can the aggressor be prosecuted for intentional murder?

Three people are all in the same room together. The first person has a gun. The second person is standing right in front of the third person. The first person fires the gun. The bullet hits the second person, travels through his body, and then hits the third person. Both the second and third persons were killed as a result of being shot. The first person wanted the bullet to hit the second person. The first person was aware that the bullet was virtually certain to hit third person. Which statement best describes the first person’s mental state?

A banker works at an investment bank. As part of his job, he helps clients with their financial transactions. Since some of the clients are very wealthy, the transactions are sometimes very complex. On one occasion, a client asks him for help transferring money from one account to another account. The banker executes the transfer. The next day, the police arrest the client and charge him with money laundering. Apparently, the money came from drug smuggling, and prosecutors believe that the client is involved with organized crime. The prosecutors also charge the banker with money laundering since he was the one who transferred the money between the accounts. The state’s money laundering statute includes the following provision: “Whoever engages in a financial transaction with knowledge that the transaction will conceal the existence of illegal activity is guilty of the crime of money laundering.” The state also has a mistake of fact provision borrowed from the Model Penal Code. The banker claims that he was unaware of the underlying illegal activity. Can he argue mistake of fact to avoid criminal liability?

Two people have sex; one person is 21 years-old and the other is 16 years-old. The age of consent in the jurisdiction is 17 years old. At trial, the twenty-one-year-old testifies that he believed that the other person was at least 17 years-old. Is he guilty of statutory rape?

A pharmacist is charged with murder for killing a pharmacy customer under a statute that defines murder as “knowingly killing another human being.” The pharmacist gave the customer the wrong medication when she came to the pharmacy to have a prescription filled. The incorrect prescription was fatal to the customer because of a cardiac condition that she suffered from. Should the pharmacist be convicted of murder under the statute?

A man is prosecuted for the offense of unlawfully receiving state welfare benefits. At trial, the judge tells the jury that the crime requires no mental state because the statute does not list one. The man is prosecuted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The man appeals and argues that the judge was wrong to instruct the jury that the crime does not require a mental state. In making this determination, which factor will not be relevant to the court’s consideration of the issue?

Three teenagers are at home on a Sunday afternoon. The first teenager has a gun and he hands it to the second teenager and tells him that the gun is unloaded. The second teen and the third teen start playing with the gun. At some point, the second teen points the gun at the third teen and pulls the trigger. The gun discharges and a bullet strikes the third teen in the head, killing him instantly. The second teen is charged with involuntary manslaughter, which in this jurisdiction requires that the defendant recklessly caused the death of another human being. The prosecutor’s theory of the case is that the second teen should have checked the gun to ensure that it wasn’t loaded, which he didn’t do. The second teen wants to argue that he cannot be convicted because he was laboring under a mistake of fact. Is the second teen right about mistake of fact? Does his mistake automatically preclude his conviction for manslaughter? This jurisdiction follows the Model Penal Code provision on mistakes.

A manager works at a food processing plant that manufactures, among other things, peanut butter. The manager learns that some of the peanut butter produced in the facility may have been contaminated with dangerous bacteria. After the peanut butter is shipped to stores and sold, 12 people become seriously ill and one of them dies from eating the tainted peanut butter. The local prosecutor has launched a criminal case against the manager in a jurisdiction that follows the Model Penal Code. Can the manager be convicted of a crime of recklessness?

A wealthy individual makes millions of dollars each year. When it comes time to file and pay her federal income tax, she refuses to disclose her income on her tax return and does not pay the federal government the required amount of money. At around the same time, she looked at various websites that give false reasons for why wealthy individuals are not required to pay income taxes. Eventually, the IRS comes calling. The individual maintains that she did not know that she was legally required to pay the income tax. Nonetheless, federal prosecutors charge her with tax evasion for failing to declare her income and pay tax on it. Can her lawyer argue mistake of law to avoid criminal responsibility?

The operator of a carnival park has a vintage Ferris wheel which is a major draw from the park. The ride is inspected every week. One Monday, the inspector arrives and tells the operator that metal supports on the wheel have been weakened by structural defects, that the wheel is in immediate danger of breaking while in operation, and that the Ferris wheel should be repaired immediately. The repair will take two weeks. The operator calculates that he will lose $10,000 in lost revenue if he takes the ride out of service to be repaired. Not wanting to lose the revenue, the ride is kept in service. The next day the metal fractures, causing an accident, which results in the death of a boy that was on the ride. An investigation conclusively establishes that the metal fractures were caused by the very structural defects identified by the inspector. In a jurisdiction that applies the Model Penal Code scheme for mental states, what is the operator’s mental state with regard to the boy’s death?

The police investigate a report of a kidnapping—a man who was taken from his home and held for a day before being rescued. The defendant is charged with participation in the kidnapping. The case takes place in a jurisdiction that has adopted the Model Penal Code. At trial, the defendant seeks to argue to the jury that he was laboring under a mistake of law. Specifically, the defendant asserts that he honestly believed that he was assisting law enforcement officers in making a lawful arrest of the man. Should the defendant be permitted to make this argument to the jury?

A mother left her seven-month-old daughter in the bathtub, filled with a couple inches of water, when the mother’s friend knocked on the front door. The mother and her friend sat down in the living room to talk about a recent argument they had had, and the mother mentioned to her friend that her daughter was in the bathtub. The mother’s husband came home ten minutes later finding the two chatting away, and the daughter dead in the bathtub. The mother admitted that she had left the water running, but that she thought she would only be away for a minute to answer the door when she left her daughter alone. She acknowledged that her daughter could only sit up on her own for a brief period and that when she walked away to answer the door, her daughter was alone in a couple of inches of water. What is the highest level of homicide the prosecutor could charge based on the mother’s actions and mental state in a Model Penal Code jurisdiction?

A mother left her two-year-old daughter in the bathtub, filled with a couple inches of water, when the mother's friend knocked on the front door. The mother turned the bathtub faucet off, and she and her friend sat down in the living room to talk about a recent argument they had had. The mother's husband came home ten minutes later finding her and her friend chatting away, and the daughter dead in the bathtub. The mother insisted to police that she had turned the water off before leaving her daughter unattended and planned on being away for just a few seconds. She acknowledged that when she walked away to answer the door, her daughter was alone in a couple of inches of water. What is the highest level of homicide the prosecutor could charge based on the mother's’s actions and mental state in a Model Penal Code jurisdiction?

A man who is also a convicted felon learns that he has just inherited his uncle’s antique firearm collection. He sees his neighbor, the local district attorney, mowing his lawn. The man walks over to his neighbor and asks her if she sees a problem with him obtaining his uncle’s gun collection. The neighbor says, “No, doesn’t sound like a problem to me,” and keeps mowing her lawn. The man collects his uncle’s firearms, and police later find out and arrest him for the crime of knowingly possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Will he be successful in arguing mistake of law at trial in a common law jurisdiction?

A husband and wife are locked in an intense, verbal altercation. The verbal dispute escalates, and the wife responds after a few moments by stabbing her husband in the neck, killing him. The state charges the wife with first-degree murder in a jurisdiction that defines first-degree murder as a killing performed with premeditation and deliberation. The woman seeks a jury instruction that there was insufficient time for her to premeditate the killing. Will the judge grant the requested instruction?

A customer gets into a dispute with a shopkeeper and draws a gun. The customer is angry and decides to teach the shopkeeper a lesson by shooting him in the leg in order to injure him. The bullet grazes an artery in the shopkeeper’s leg and the shopkeeper dies in surgery at the hospital. Which forms of murder has the customer possibly committed?

A man breaks into a locked residence with the intent to commit a theft while inside the residence. The man expects the residence to be unoccupied. However, once the man is inside the residence, he hears a rustling sound and sees someone entering the living room. The man panics and throws a large statute that he is holding at the occupant of the house, hoping to slow down the occupant so that he can escape the residence. The occupant later dies from the injury and the man is arrested after a short investigation. In a jurisdiction that applies both enumerated and unenumerated felony murder, which type of felony murder would be applied in this case?

A man commits a violent rape. The victim dies during the course of the attack. The man that committed the rape had not intended for the victim to die. He is charged with murder. In a jurisdiction that applies the Model Penal Code, how should the judge charge the jury regarding the requirements for murder?

A man robs a bank armed with a handgun. After leaving the bank with the money, he flees on foot. The teller at the bank activates an alarm and the police are dispatched. The police catch up with the man a few yards from the bank, where a shoot-out occurs. The man fires his gun at a police officer. The police officer returns fire, but instead of the bullet hitting the man, the police officer’s bullet hits an innocent bystander, who is instantly killed. The man is captured, arrested, and charged with armed robbery. Is the man also guilty of felony murder?

An auto mechanic owns and runs his own car repair shop. A customer from out of town comes in to his shop and requests that new brakes be installed on his car. Instead of using new breaks, the mechanic decides to save some money and install used brakes on the car, while telling the customer that he is getting brand new brakes. The mechanic’s reasoning for the fraud is that the customer is from out of town and will be unlikely to complain about the substandard work. A week later, the brakes fail and the customer gets into a single car accident and dies. Is the mechanic guilty of involuntary manslaughter?

A driver drives erratically down a country road and gets into an accident, killing another motorist. The driver is charged with the felony of “driving dangerously” and also with felony murder. The defense counsel argues that the felony murder doctrine cannot be applied because the triggering felony was not inherently dangerous. How will the court determine if the felony of driving dangerously is inherently dangerous or not?

A woman is accused of killing a man with “depraved indifference to human life.” What category of homicide will most likely be listed on the charging instrument?

In a jurisdiction that applies the common-law defense of provocation, why is the defense sometimes labeled as a “failure of proof” defense?

Two men get involved in a verbal dispute in a drinking establishment, and the first man strikes the second man repeatedly in the head causing severe injuries. Two days later, the second man dies from his injuries. However, the first man only wanted to injure the second man and had not intended for him to die. The first man is charged with manslaughter in the death. Can the first man be convicted of this offense in a jurisdiction that follows the Model Penal Code?

A wife is angry with her husband. They have a vicious verbal disagreement that lasts three hours. The wife then goes to sleep. After waking up, she is still angry. In a split second, she decides to pick up a gun and shoot her husband, who dies immediately. Is she guilty of premeditated murder?

A girlfriend is has been dating her boyfriend for over a year. One day, the girlfriend learns that the boyfriend is having an affair with another woman. Enraged, the girlfriend confronts the boyfriend and stabs him to death. Is the girlfriend guilty of manslaughter in a jurisdiction that applies the Model Penal Code?

Two business associates get into a physical altercation after work. During the altercation, one of them pulls out a knife and attacks the other, who later dies from his injuries. The person who attacked with the knife is charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Is he also guilty of felony murder?

The defendant is prosecuted and convicted of capital murder in state court. The conviction is upheld on appeal. The defendant files a federal habeas corpus petition alleging that the state’s method of execution, lethal injection, is by definition cruel and unusual punishment because there is a risk that it will cause him suffering during the execution process. Should a court grant the petition for writ of habeas corpus?

A person commits arson when she burns down a commercial building in order to collect the proceeds from an insurance policy. She assumes that the building is unoccupied because it is the middle of the night. However, she turns out to be wrong. A nighttime cleaning crew is in the building, and four of them die during the fire she set. Is the person guilty of felony murder?

Two important limitations on the felony murder doctrine are the inherently dangerous felony limitation and the merger limitation. In most jurisdictions, these doctrines are applied to limit what type of felony murder?

Two men are involved in a heated verbal dispute on a street corner. One of the men issues the following taunt: “I hate your guts and you are a pathetic human being.” The other man gets enraged and responds by stabbing the man to death. At trial, the defendant argues that he should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter. In a jurisdiction that applies the common-law defense of provocation, should he be convicted of murder or manslaughter?

An investment banker works at a financial company. The investment banker is engaged in a massive financial fraud that involves a pyramid scheme. Individuals believe that their money is being invested in the stock market when, in reality, the investment banker is using the money to finance his lavish lifestyle. During the course of this fraud, the investment banker has a meeting with one of his clients, who eventually learns about the massive fraud and gets so upset that he suffers a heart attack and dies. The investment banker is charged with felony fraud for the pyramid scheme. The prosecutor also wants to charge the investment banker with felony murder because the jurisdiction applies the felony murder rule. Is this charge legitimate?