California Bar Examination Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Syllabus

Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure in California Bar Examination, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Elements of Crimes and Parties

   4 topics

   • Actus Reus and Mens Rea
     • Voluntary act and omission
     • Specific intent, general intent, and strict liability
     • Model Penal Code culpability levels
   • Causation and Concurrence
   • Accomplice and Accessory Liability
   • Vicarious and Corporate Liability
2. 2

   Specific Offenses

   4 topics

   • Homicide
     • Murder and malice aforethought
     • First and second degree murder and felony murder
     • Voluntary and involuntary manslaughter
   • Other Crimes Against the Person
   • Property Crimes
     • Larceny, embezzlement, and false pretenses
     • Robbery and extortion
     • Burglary and arson
   • Inchoate Crimes
     • Attempt
     • Conspiracy
     • Solicitation
3. 3

   Defenses

   5 topics

   • Justification Defenses (Self-Defense and Necessity)
   • Insanity Tests and Diminished Capacity
   • Intoxication
   • Mistake of Fact and Law
   • Duress and Entrapment
4. 4

   Constitutional Criminal Procedure

   5 topics

   • Fourth Amendment Searches and Seizures
     • Reasonable expectation of privacy
     • Warrant requirement and exceptions
     • Stop and frisk under Terry
     • Exclusionary rule and fruit of the poisonous tree
   • Fifth Amendment
     • Miranda warnings and custodial interrogation
     • Privilege against self-incrimination
     • Double jeopardy
   • Sixth Amendment
     • Right to counsel and effective assistance
     • Confrontation and right to jury trial
   • Identification Procedures and Due Process
   • Pretrial, Guilty Pleas, and Sentencing

Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure flashcards for California Bar Examination

23 of 60 cards from the Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the two basic components that must concur for criminal liability, and what does each mean?

   Actus reus (a voluntary physical act or qualifying omission) and mens rea (the required guilty mental state). The guilty mind must actuate the guilty act (concurrence).

2. When does a failure to act (omission) create criminal liability?

   Only when there is a legal duty to act, the defendant has knowledge of the facts giving rise to the duty, and it is reasonably possible to perform. Duties arise from statute, contract, special relationship, voluntary assumption of care, or creation of the peril.

3. Define the common law specific-intent crimes and why the classification matters.

   Crimes requiring intent beyond the act: first-degree premeditated murder, assault, larceny, robbery, burglary, forgery, false pretenses, embezzlement, solicitation, conspiracy, attempt. It matters because specific-intent crimes allow defenses of voluntary intoxication and unreasonable mistake of fact.

4. List and define the four Model Penal Code (MPC) levels of culpability.

   Purposely (conscious objective to engage in conduct/cause result), Knowingly (aware conduct is of a certain nature or practically certain to cause result), Recklessly (conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk), Negligently (should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk).

5. What is the mens rea for a malice crime at common law, and which crimes are malice crimes?

   Malice = reckless disregard of a high risk of harm (intentional or wanton). The two common-law malice crimes are murder and arson. Voluntary intoxication and mistake are generally not defenses.

6. What characterizes a strict liability offense and what defenses are unavailable?

   No mens rea is required as to at least one material element (often regulatory/public-welfare or statutory-rape offenses). Mistake of fact and intoxication are NOT defenses because no mental state need be proven.

7. What two types of causation must the prosecution prove for result crimes, and how is each defined?

   Actual (factual) cause: 'but for' the defendant's act the result would not have occurred (or substantial factor with concurrent causes). Proximate (legal) cause: the result is a foreseeable/natural consequence of the act, not broken by a superseding intervening cause.

8. How do dependent (responsive) versus independent (coincidental) intervening causes affect proximate cause?

   Dependent/responsive intervening causes (e.g., negligent medical care, victim's escape attempt) do NOT break the causal chain unless abnormal. Independent/coincidental causes break the chain only if unforeseeable.

9. What is the concurrence requirement in criminal law?

   The defendant must possess the required mens rea at the moment of (and the mens rea must actuate) the actus reus. A guilty intent formed after the act, or an act done before the intent forms, breaks concurrence.

10. What are the requirements for accomplice liability at common law/MPC?

    The accomplice must (1) aid, counsel, or encourage the principal (2) with the intent to assist and the intent that the principal commit the crime. The accomplice is liable for the planned crime AND all other foreseeable crimes committed in its course.

11. Distinguish principal in the first degree, principal in the second degree, accessory before the fact, and accessory after the fact.

    First degree: performs the act. Second degree: present and aids (e.g., lookout). Accessory before the fact: aids/encourages but absent at the crime. Accessory after the fact: knowingly assists a felon to escape arrest/punishment after the felony is complete (separate, lesser crime).

12. How can an accomplice withdraw to avoid liability for the substantive crime?

    Withdrawal must occur before the crime becomes unstoppable. If the accomplice only encouraged, he must repudiate/discourage. If he provided assistance (e.g., materials), he must neutralize it or attempt to do so (and may notify police).

13. What is vicarious liability in criminal law and its key limitation?

    Holding one person (e.g., an employer) criminally liable for another's act without personal fault, usually limited to regulatory/strict-liability offenses. Imprisonment generally may not be imposed for purely vicarious liability without personal culpability (due process limit).

14. How can a corporation be held criminally liable?

    Modern/MPC view: a corporation is liable when an agent acting within the scope of employment commits the offense, or when a high managerial agent authorizes, commands, or recklessly tolerates the conduct. Corporations are punished by fines.

15. Define common law murder and the four states of mind constituting malice aforethought.

    Murder is the unlawful killing of a human with malice aforethought. Malice exists with: (1) intent to kill, (2) intent to inflict serious bodily harm, (3) depraved-heart (reckless indifference to human life), or (4) felony murder (intent to commit a dangerous felony).

16. What distinguishes first-degree from second-degree murder?

    First-degree requires a statutory aggravator: premeditation and deliberation, or a killing during an enumerated felony (BARRK—burglary, arson, robbery, rape, kidnapping). All other malice killings are second-degree (the default/catch-all).

17. State the limitations on the felony murder rule.

    (1) Defendant must be guilty of the underlying felony; (2) the felony must be inherently dangerous; (3) felony must be independent of the killing (merger—not assault/battery); (4) death must be foreseeable; (5) death must occur during commission/immediate flight (before reaching safety).

18. Under the majority/agency theory of felony murder, who is liable when a co-felon or bystander is killed by police or the victim?

    Agency (majority) view: no felony-murder liability for deaths caused by a non-felon (police/victim), including the death of a co-felon. Redline/agency limits liability to killings by the felons themselves. (Proximate-cause minority view extends liability.)

19. What is voluntary manslaughter and the requirements for adequate provocation?

    An intentional killing mitigated by adequate provocation (heat of passion): (1) provocation a reasonable person would lose self-control over, (2) defendant in fact lost control, (3) no reasonable cooling-off time, and (4) defendant did not in fact cool off.

20. Distinguish the two types of involuntary manslaughter.

    (1) Criminal-negligence (reckless) manslaughter: killing through gross/criminal negligence. (2) Misdemeanor-manslaughter (unlawful act): killing during commission of a misdemeanor (malum in se) or a non-dangerous felony not covered by felony murder.

21. Define common law battery and assault.

    Battery: unlawful application of force to another resulting in bodily harm or offensive touching (general intent). Assault: either an attempt to commit a battery, or intentionally placing another in reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily harm.

22. Define kidnapping and false imprisonment and distinguish them.

    False imprisonment: unlawful confinement of a person without consent. Kidnapping: false imprisonment that involves either movement (asportation) of the victim or concealment in a secret place. Kidnapping is aggravated false imprisonment.

23. State the common law elements of rape and the modern role of consent.

    Common law: unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman by a man, not his wife, without her consent (by force, threat, fraud, or incapacity). Slightest penetration completes the crime. Modern statutes are gender-neutral and abolish the marital exemption.

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