MPC Culpability (§ 2.02)
The default culpability level under MPC § 2.02(3) when a statute fails to specify a mental state for circumstance or result elements.
What is Recklessness?
The actus reus standard for Attempt under MPC § 5.01(1)(c), which measures what the actor has already done.
What is a Substantial Step (strongly corroborative of the actor's criminal purpose)?
Under MPC § 210.2(1)(b), a reckless killing rises to Murder if committed under circumstances manifesting this.
What is extreme indifference to the value of human life?
The MPC provision (§ 2.04(1)(a)) allows a mistake of fact to serve as a defense whenever it negates this.
What is the required culpability element of the offense?
In Problem 58 (Valle / "Girlmeat Hunter"), an online group discussed kidnapping and eating women; under MPC § 5.03, conspiracy requires purpose plus this act.
What is an overt act in furtherance (or genuine purpose/agreement to act beyond mere discussion)?
Under MPC § 2.02(2)(a), this mental state requires that it be the actor’s "conscious object" to engage in conduct or cause a specific result.
What is Purposely?
Under MPC § 5.03(1), the MPC adopts this approach to conspiracy, allowing a defendant to be convicted even if their co-conspirator is an undercover cop or feigning agreement.
What is the Unilateral Approach?
The defense that mitigates what would otherwise be murder down to manslaughter under MPC § 210.3(1)(b).
What is Extreme Emotional Disturbance (EED)?
Under MPC § 2.08(2), when recklessness is an element of an offense, an actor's unawareness of a risk due to voluntary intoxication is treated this way.
What is recklessness is imputed (the unawareness is disregarded)?
In Problem 47 (McCloskey), a prisoner starts an escape, changes his mind, and voluntarily returns to work before alarms sound; under MPC § 5.01(4), he has this defense.
What is Renunciation / Voluntary Abandonment?
The standard for establishing "knowledge" of a fact under MPC § 2.02(7) when an actor is aware of a high probability of its existence.
What is awareness of a high probability (unless the actor actually believes it does not exist)?
Unlike the Common Law, MPC § 1.07(1)(b) mandates this rule regarding a conspiracy and its completed target offense.
What is Merger?
Instead of a strict felony-murder rule, MPC § 210.2(1)(b) creates this procedural mechanism during enumerated felonies
What is a rebuttable presumption of extreme indifference/recklessness?
the MPC’s causation provision (§ 2.03) handles proximate cause differences between intended and actual outcomes by asking if the result is not too...
What is too remote or accidental in its occurrence to have a just bearing on liability?
In Problem 51 (So & Watson smuggling sugar believing it is drugs), under MPC § 5.01(1)(a), impossibility is eliminated because attempt turns on the circumstances as...
What are the circumstances as the actor believes them to be?
Under MPC § 2.02, this culpability state differs from recklessness because the actor should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk, rather than consciously disregarding it.
What is Negligently?
To claim affirmative defense for attempt under MPC § 5.01(4) or conspiracy under § 5.03(6), the abandonment/renunciation must be completely voluntary and meet this condition.
What is completely thwarting the success of the crime/conspiracy?
Under MPC § 210.4, an unintentional killing resulting from a failure to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk is graded as this.
What is Negligent Homicide?
Under MPC § 2.04(2), if a defendant makes a mistake of fact that negates mens rea for the charged offense, but would be guilty of another offense had the situation been as believed, liability is capped at this.
What is the grade and degree of the offense he supposed he was committing?
In Problem 22 (Dr. Einaugler directing nurses to pump dialysate into a catheter), under the MPC, his liability for negligent homicide depends on whether his mistake was a failure to perceive risk under this standard.
What is a gross deviation from the standard of care of a reasonable person?
Under MPC § 2.05, strict liability is strictly limited and generally confined to these non-criminal classifications.
What are Violations (or offenses with no possibility of imprisonment)?
Under MPC § 5.05(1), inchoate offenses are graded the same as the target offense, with this single major exception.
What is a First-Degree Felony (which drops to a second-degree felony)?
Under MPC § 210.3(1)(b), the reasonableness of an extreme emotional disturbance is evaluated from this subjective-objective perspective.
What is the viewpoint of a person in the actor's situation under the circumstances as he believes them to be?
The MPC explicitly rejects this common-law doctrine that automatically holds co-conspirators liable for all foreseeable crimes committed by others in furtherance of the conspiracy.
What is the Pinkerton Doctrine?
In Problem 49 (Smallwood committing rape while HIV-positive), under MPC § 5.01(1)(a), attempted murder requires proving this mental state regarding the death of the victim.
What is Purpose (conscious object to cause death or belief it will occur)?