NextGen Bar Exam Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure Syllabus

Criminal Law and Constitutional 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 Constitutional Criminal Procedure in NextGen Bar Exam, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Elements of Crimes

   4 topics

   • Actus Reus and Mens Rea
     • Voluntary acts and omissions
     • Common law and Model Penal Code mental states
   • Causation
     • Actual and proximate cause
   • Accomplice and Vicarious Liability
   • Strict Liability Offenses
2. 2

   Specific Offenses and Inchoate Crimes

   4 topics

   • Homicide
     • Murder and the felony-murder rule
     • Voluntary and involuntary manslaughter
   • Other Crimes Against Persons
   • Property Crimes
     • Larceny, embezzlement, and false pretenses
     • Robbery, burglary, and arson
   • Inchoate Offenses
     • Attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy
3. 3

   Defenses

   4 topics

   • Justification Defenses
     • Self-defense and defense of others
     • Necessity and defense of property
   • Excuse Defenses
     • Insanity tests
     • Intoxication and duress
   • Mistake of Fact and Law
   • Entrapment
4. 4

   Police Investigation and the Fourth Amendment

   4 topics

   • Searches and Seizures
     • Reasonable expectation of privacy
     • Warrant requirement and probable cause
   • Warrant Exceptions
     • Search incident to arrest and exigent circumstances
     • Automobile, plain view, and consent searches
     • Stop and frisk
   • The Exclusionary Rule
     • Fruit of the poisonous tree and exceptions
   • Arrests and Investigatory Detentions
5. 5

   Confessions, Identifications, and Trial Rights

   4 topics

   • Fifth Amendment and Miranda
     • Custodial interrogation triggers
     • Waiver, invocation, and voluntariness
   • Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel
     • Attachment and the Massiah doctrine
     • Effective assistance of counsel
   • Pretrial Identification Procedures
   • Trial and Post-Trial Rights
     • Right to a speedy and public jury trial
     • Confrontation Clause
     • Double jeopardy

Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure flashcards for NextGen Bar Exam

22 of 61 cards from the Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the two basic components that must concur for most crimes, and what does each require?

   Actus reus (a voluntary physical act or qualifying omission) and mens rea (the guilty state of mind). The two must concur — the criminal intent must actuate (set in motion) the guilty act.

2. When does a failure to act (omission) constitute the actus reus of a crime?

   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. List the four common-law (Model Penal Code) mental states from most to least culpable.

   Purposely, knowingly, recklessly, negligently. Purposely = conscious object; knowingly = aware conduct is practically certain to cause result; recklessly = conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk; negligently = should have been aware of such risk.

4. Distinguish specific intent, general intent, and malice crimes.

   Specific intent requires intent to do a further act or achieve a specific result (e.g., burglary, larceny, attempt); general intent requires only awareness of acting in the proscribed way (e.g., battery, rape); malice (murder, arson) requires reckless disregard of an obvious or high risk of harm.

5. What is transferred intent, and to what crimes does it apply?

   If a defendant intends harm to one victim but causes the same harm to a different victim, intent transfers to the actual victim. It applies to homicide, battery, and arson — generally not to attempt.

6. What are the two types of causation required for result crimes, and what does each mean?

   Actual (factual) cause — the result would not have occurred 'but for' the defendant's conduct (or defendant was a substantial factor). Proximate (legal) cause — the result is a natural and probable/foreseeable consequence of the conduct, not too remote or accidental.

7. How does an intervening cause affect criminal liability?

   A foreseeable (dependent) intervening cause does not break the causal chain — defendant remains liable. An unforeseeable (independent) superseding cause breaks the chain and relieves the defendant of liability for the ultimate result.

8. Under the eggshell-victim (take-your-victim-as-you-find-him) rule, does a victim's pre-existing condition cut off causation?

   No. A defendant is liable for the full extent of harm even if a pre-existing weakness or unusual susceptibility made the harm far greater than expected; the victim's frailty is not a superseding cause.

9. What are the elements of accomplice liability under the modern/majority rule?

   An accomplice (1) aids, abets, counsels, or encourages the principal in committing the crime, (2) with the intent (dual intent) both to assist and that the principal commit the substantive offense. The accomplice is liable for that crime and all other foreseeable crimes committed in its course.

10. Who may be an accessory after the fact, and how does that liability differ from accomplice liability?

    An accessory after the fact knowingly assists a person who has completed a felony to avoid arrest, trial, or conviction. Unlike an accomplice, the accessory after the fact is guilty only of a separate, lesser obstruction-type offense — not of the underlying felony.

11. What is respondeat superior / vicarious liability in criminal law, and what is its main limitation?

    Vicarious liability imposes criminal liability on one party (often an employer or corporation) for the acts of another (an employee) without personal fault. It is generally limited to regulatory/public-welfare offenses and usually cannot result in imprisonment based purely on vicarious liability.

12. What distinguishes a strict liability offense, and what is its hallmark consequence for the prosecution?

    A strict liability (public-welfare) offense requires no mens rea as to at least one material element. The prosecution need not prove intent, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence, and mistake of fact is not a defense. Common examples: statutory rape, selling liquor to minors, traffic offenses.

13. What clues indicate a statute creates a strict liability offense?

    The statute is regulatory/public-welfare in nature, omits any mens rea language, imposes only small penalties, and the conduct poses a danger to public health or safety. Courts otherwise presume a mens rea requirement.

14. What are the four states of mind (malice) that satisfy common-law murder?

    (1) Intent to kill, (2) intent to inflict serious bodily harm, (3) reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (depraved/abandoned heart), and (4) intent to commit a dangerous felony (felony murder).

15. Distinguish first-degree from second-degree murder.

    First-degree murder is killing committed with premeditation and deliberation (or by statute, enumerated felony murder/specified means). Second-degree murder is a 'default' murder — any murder with malice aforethought that is not elevated to first degree.

16. What distinguishes voluntary from involuntary manslaughter?

    Voluntary manslaughter is an intentional killing committed in the heat of passion upon adequate provocation (or imperfect self-defense). Involuntary manslaughter is an unintentional killing from criminal negligence or during the commission of an unlawful act (misdemeanor manslaughter).

17. What are the elements of the adequate-provocation (heat of passion) doctrine reducing murder to voluntary manslaughter?

    (1) Provocation that would arouse sudden and intense passion in an ordinary person so as to lose self-control, (2) the defendant was in fact provoked, (3) insufficient cooling-off time, and (4) the defendant in fact did not cool off.

18. State the felony murder rule and the main limitations on it.

    A killing — even accidental — committed during the commission or attempted commission of an inherently dangerous felony (Burglary, Arson, Rape, Robbery, Kidnapping — 'BARRK') is murder. Limits: the underlying felony must be independent (merger), foreseeable, and the death must occur during the felony, including immediate flight (felony ends upon reaching a place of temporary safety).

19. Distinguish battery from assault at common law.

    Battery is an unlawful application of force to another resulting in bodily harm or offensive touching (a completed touching, general intent). Assault is either an attempt to commit a battery or the intentional creation of a reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily harm (no contact required).

20. Compare kidnapping and false imprisonment.

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

21. What are the elements of common-law larceny?

    (1) Trespassory (wrongful) taking (caption) and (2) carrying away (asportation) of (3) the tangible personal property (4) of another (5) without consent, (6) with intent to permanently deprive the owner at the time of the taking.

22. Distinguish larceny by trick, embezzlement, and false pretenses.

    Larceny by trick — defendant obtains possession (not title) by deception. Embezzlement — fraudulent conversion of property by one already in lawful possession. False pretenses — obtaining title (not just possession) by a knowing false representation of a material present or past fact with intent to defraud.

See more Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure flashcards →

Planning Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure for NextGen Bar Exam

Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure (NextGen Bar Exam) FAQ