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REAL WORLD RESOURCES

for

Samaha’s Criminal Law, 11nd Edition

The media resources mentioned in the supplements (Instructor’s Manual, Lesson Plans and Student Study Guide) have been extracted and compiled here to serves as a reference for students and instructors. They are organized by learning objective within each chapter. Some of the resources apply to multiple LO, so the additional LOs they align with are noted in brackets at the end of the item.

Chapter One

Criminal Law and Punishment: An Overview

1. Define and understand what behavior deserves criminal punishment.

• Explore federal criminal law at the Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute website: (LO 3)

• This link is to the United States Criminal Code – Part I Crimes: (LO 3)

2. Understand and appreciate the relationship between the general and special parts of criminal law.

• Link to the book section of New York Times online. Read sections of a book titled Crime and Punishment in America, about the growing inmate population in the United States: (LO 1)

3. Identify, describe, and understand the main sources of criminal law.

• The United States Supreme Court website. Full text of Supreme Court cases, access to oral arguments, and information about the court itself.



• The United Stated Archives Charters of Freedom website. Includes links to the U.S. Constitution, the Amendments, and other important historical documents.



4. Define criminal punishment; know the difference between criminal and noncriminal sanctions, and understand the purposes of each.

• A website that contains a guide to penal law; includes a link to a section about the differences between criminal and civil law.

5. Define and appreciate the significance of the presumption of innocence and burden of proof as they relate to criminal liability.

• U.S. Supreme Court media website. Provides access to court briefs, podcasts, articles and other media regarding cases.



6. Understand the role of informal discretion and appreciate its relationship to formal criminal law.

•

Police news website that includes articles related to legal issues affecting police.

7. Understand the text-case method and how to apply it to the study of criminal law.

• The United States Supreme Court website, which includes links to cases.

• Overview of the Supreme Court case Kansas v. Marsh (2005):



• Online article in The Oxford Journal of Law, Economics, and & Organization about the role of discretion in criminal Justice.



Chapter Two

Constitutional Limits on Criminal Law

1. Understand and appreciate the reasons for the limits on criminal law and criminal punishment in the U.S. constitutional democracy.

• Article about the media in Arizona witnessing the preparation of lethal-injection executions.

(LO6)

• The Bill of Rights Institute website. Provides access to a large number of current events related to Bill of Rights issues as well as teaching materials.

(LO5)

• An overview of Criminal Law:

(LO 2)

2. Understand the principle of legality and the importance of its relationship to the limits of criminal law and punishment.

• International Law Reporter (ILR) Website:

(LO 3)

• The Death website. Provides information regarding the death penalty.



3. Appreciate the nature and importance of retroactive criminal law making.

• Outline of case Hughes v. State (1994):



• An article authored by Patrick Healy about the importance of restraint in the criminal law: (LO 4)

4. Know the criteria for identifying vague laws, and understand and appreciate their constitutional significance and their consequences.

• article titled “Get Rid of Vague Laws,” written by Timothy Sandefur



5. Know and understand and appreciate the limits placed on criminal law and criminal punishment by the specific provisions in the Bill of Rights.

• Vanderbilt University website. Provides information on First Amendment issues and current events involving the First Amendment.



• A link to The Bill of Rights:

6. Understand and appreciate the constitutional significance and consequences of principle of proportionality in criminal punishment.

• The American Bar Association website. Provides information regarding constitutional issues and law.



• China Rights Forum. This link is a website devoted to human rights in China. The paper identified in the link discusses the use of Reeducation through Labor (RTL) as well as recommendations to the Chinese government on the issue.



7. Understand the importance of the right to trial by jury in the process of sentencing convicted offenders.

• The Future of Freedom Foundation Website:



Chapter Three

The Criminal Act: The First Principle of Criminal Liability

1. Identify the elements of criminal liability, and explain why the voluntary act is the first principle of such.

• New York Times Website, which contains articles on crime:

2. Differentiate conduct crimes from bad result crimes.

• Information from regarding mens rea (a defendant’s mental state).

(LO 1)

3. Be able to distinguish between criminal conduct and criminal liability and therefore punishment.

• The Yale Law School website. Links to news on law issues.

(LO 1, 2; 4-10)

4. Understand and appreciate the importance of the requirement of a voluntary act.

• Sleep Disorders Guide website. Includes information about the possibility of committing violent acts while sleepwalking.

(LO 5, 6, 7)

5. Understand the legal definition of a voluntary act.

• Lexus Nexus website. Provides links to information on a variety of criminal justice legal issues. Some access is free, some requires a subscription.

(LO1- 4; 6- 10)

6. Identify the circumstances when, and to be able to explain why, status is treated, sometimes, as an affirmative act.

• Drug Enforcement Administration website. Includes information on federal laws regarding possession (notice laws avoid making a status a crime, rather than possession).

(LO 9)

7. Be able to understand how the general principle of actus reus includes a voluntary act and how it is viewed by the Constitution.

8. Understand and identify the circumstances when, and to be able to explain why, omissions are treated as acts.

• The United States Military Website; includes Punitive Articles of the UCMJ.



9. Understand and identify the circumstances when, and to be able to explain why, possession can be treated as an act.

• section regarding the definition of possession.



10. Know the different types of possession recognized by the law.

• Florida Criminal Law Blog. Provides access to discussions on a variety of possession and other issues.



Chapter Four

The General Principles of Criminal Liability:

Mens Rea, Concurrence, Causation, Ignorance, and Mistake

1. Understand and appreciate that most serious crimes require criminal intent and a criminal act.

• American Bar Association – Article on Juvenile Culpability:



2. Understand the difference between criminal intent and motive.

• ExpertLaw online forum, which includes a discussion about the difference between motive and intent.



3. Understand the difference between general and specific intent.

• Summary of case Harris v. State (1999). This case involves the adoption and application of general intent.



• “With Criminal Intent” website. Provides access to a data mining project bringing together case information from numerous online resources.



4. Understand and appreciate the differences in culpability among the Model Penal Code’s (MPC) four mental states—purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently.

• Article on the possibility of amending the Model Penal Code Men’s Rea provisions from the Boston University School of Law website.



• The Model Penal Code’s definition and explanation of Mens Rea.



• American Law Institute website. Provides links to the Model Penal Code.



5. Understand that criminal liability is sometimes imposed without fault (also known as strict liability).

• University of Pennsylvania Law School Website, which includes an article about whether or not strict liability is “wrong” (titled Is Strict Liability Really Wrong?).



6. Know the definition of concurrence and why it is important in criminal liability considerations.

• Quiz Law website. Provides answer to questions about law.

(LO 1-5; 7-10)

7. Understand that the element of causation applies only to “bad result” crimes and be able to differentiate factual cause from legal cause.

8. Understand that ignorance of facts and law can create a reasonable doubt that the prosecution has proved the element of criminal intent.

• website. The link will take you to the section about criminal law “ignorance or mistake” defenses.



Chapter Five

Defenses to Criminal Liability: Justifications

1. Understand that defendants are not criminally liable if their actions were justified under the circumstances.

• FindLaw for Legal Professionals website. Provides links to legal codes in the United States.

(LO 2-4)

2. Understand that defendants are not criminally liable if they were not responsible for their actions.

3. Understand how the affirmative defenses operate in justified and excused conduct.

• Interactive section on CNN website; includes information on the laws in different states regarding self-defense laws.

(LO 4, 5)

4. Appreciate that self-defense limits the use of deadly force to those who reasonably believe they are faced with the choice to kill or be killed right now.

• Close Quarter Combat Training Self-Defense Video on Youtube Website.



5. Know and understand the differences between the four elements of self-defense.

6. Understand the retreat rule and appreciate its historic transformation.

• Website that includes information about self-defense and the retreat rule.



7. Appreciate how the historic transformation of the retreat rule led to the stand-your-ground rule.

• Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine Laws section on the Bill of Rights Institute website. The site also includes an article about Trayvon Martin that can be downloaded.

(LO 8, 9)

• Dissenting Justice Blog. Blog discussing law, politics, and justice.

(LO 11)

8. Understand that there’s no duty to retreat from your own home to avoid using deadly force.

• Article regarding the Texas New Castle Doctrine:

(LO 9)

9. Appreciate that the “New Castle Doctrine” laws are transforming the law of self-defense.

• Police One website. Provides access to information of importance to police including information about issues such as the New Castle Doctrine and other legal issues.



• State-by-state information on New Castle Doctrine Laws:



10. Understand that the choice to commit a lesser crime to avoid an imminent threat of harm from a greater crime is justified.

• New York Times Website article about a student in Denver who tried to argue in court that he bid on, without being able to pay for, almost $2 million of federal oil and gas because he was trying to protect the environment from an imminent threat of harm.



11. Understand that the defense of consent represents the high value placed on individual autonomy in a free society.

• Articles regarding the Armin Meiwes cannibalism case:





• Article about a case in which a judge ruled that consent was a defense to battery when a woman accepted $5 to be punched in the face by another woman.



Chapter Six

Defenses to Criminal Liability: Excuses

1. Understand that defendants who plead an excuse defense admit what they did was wrong but argue that, under the circumstances, they weren’t responsible for their actions.

• PBS Frontline story about a paranoid schizophrenic that committed a violent crime.

(LO2, 3)

2. Understand that insanity is not the same as mental disease or defect.

• explanation of the history and background of the insanity defense.

(LO3)

3. Appreciate that very few defendants plead the insanity defense, and those who do rarely succeed.

• United States Attorney’s Office website. Provides information on federal legal issues.

(LO1, 2; LO4-15)

4. Understand how the right-wrong test focuses on defect in reason or cognition.

• NBC Miami News article about a teen who pleaded the insanity defense, saying he suffered from PTSD after the suicide of his brother, for brutally beating a teenage girl so badly she suffered permanent brain damage.

(LO1)

5. Understand how the volitional incapacity test focuses on defect in self-control or will.

6. Understand how the product-of-mental-illness test focuses on criminal acts resulting from mental disease.

• National Center for Biotechnology Information website. Provides links to articles including information on legal insanity.



• description of the Irresistible Impulse Test.



7. Understand how the substantial capacity text focuses on reason and self-control.

8. Know how current trends favor shifting the burden of proof for insanity to defendants.

9. Understand the difference between diminished capacity and diminished responsibility and appreciate how they apply only to homicide.

• American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Website: Article on diminished capacity.



10. Understand the different processes regarding how the law handles age and how juvenile court judges can use their discretion to transfer a juvenile to adult criminal court.

• NOLO Law for All Website: Article on juvenile waiver.



• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention website. Provides access to information on programs for juveniles.



11. Understand how it is sometimes okay to excuse people who harm innocent people to save themselves.

12. Know the four elements of duress.

13. Understand that voluntary intoxication is no excuse for committing a crime; involuntary intoxication is.

• American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Website: Article on intoxication and mens rea.



• Legal Dictionary: Undue Influence.

14. Understand that entrapment is used in all societies even though it violates a basic purpose of government in free societies – to prevent crime, not to encourage it.

• Justice Department Website, United States Attorneys Criminal Resource Manual.



15. Despite criticism of them, understand why syndrome excuses should be taken seriously.

Chapter Seven

Parties to Crime and Vicarious Liability

1. Understand the different parties to crime and appreciate the difference between complicity and vicarious liability.

• Law Teacher study guide website: Vicarious Liability explanation.

(LO4, 8)

2. Appreciate that participants before and during the commission of crimes are guilty of

the crime itself.

• State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Website, Criminal Jury Instructions:

(LO3)

3. Understand that participants after the commission of crimes are guilty of a separate, less serious offense.

• NOLO Law for All website. Provides free legal information. (LO1, 2; 4-10)

4. Understand the difference between accomplice liability and conspiracy.

5. Know that mere presence or inaction isn’t enough to establish accomplice actus reas; the defendant had to take some positive act to aid the commission of the offense.

6. Appreciate that courts are divided over whether knowledge is sufficient to prove accomplice mens rea.

7. Understand that the core idea of accessory liability is that it’s not as blameworthy to help someone else escape prosecution and punishment as it is to participate in the crime itself.

• U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission website. Provides information on legal issues for companies, such as vicarious liability.

(LO 8, 9)

• Website that provides information about accomplice law:



8. Know the definition of vicarious liability.

9. Understand that vicarious liability can apply either to enterprises (mainly businesses) or to individuals.

• The Crown Prosecution Service Website: Definition of corporate manslaughter in the United Kingdom



• Yale Law School Website; article on the new approach to Criminal Liability:



• Federal Bureau of Investigation website. This link is to the information provided by the FBI on white collar crimes.



10. Know that vicarious liability has to be created by statute.

Chapter Eight

Inchoate Crimes

1. Understand how inchoate offenses punish people for crimes they’ve started to commit but have not finished committing.

• Scribd website. Provides links to articles and materials related to inchoate offenses.

(LOLO2; LO4)

2. Appreciate the dilemma inchoate offenses present to free societies and know the three different ways inchoate offenses are resolved.

•

An article about the punishment (or lack thereof) for criminal attempts, solicitation, and conspiracy, on the Canadian Journal of Philosophy website.

3. Understand that liability for criminal attempt offenses is based on two rationales: preventing dangerous conduct and neutralizing dangerous people.

• HG Global Legal Resources website. Provides links to information about legal issues, law practice, employment, education, and articles.

(LO1, 2; 4-11)

4. The mens rea of inchoate crimes is always the purpose or specific intent to commit a specific crime.

• PosterLaw website that includes information about inchoate crimes.

(LO1, 2)

5. Understand that the actus reus of attempt is an action that is beyond mere preparation but not enough to complete the crime.

6. Understand that legal impossibility is a defense to attempt liability and that factual impossibility is not.

• New York Criminal Lawyer blog. Provides access to discussion of criminal law issues in New York. Includes a discussion of legal impossibility.



7. Understand that voluntary and complete abandonment of an attempt in progress is a defense to attempt liability in about half the states.

• website, which includes information about abandonment and withdrawal of committing a crime.



8. Understand that punishing conspiracy and solicitation to commit a crime is based on nipping in the bud the special danger of group criminality.

•

FBI Law Enforcement Journal Website; Criminal Speech Article about inducement and the First Amendment.

9. Know the different types of conspiracies.

•

YouTube Video entitled Bush, Cheney, PNAC, & The Criminal Conspiracy To Invade Iraq; the video purports to provide enough information to charge the Bush administration with conspiracy.

10. Understand the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and how it works against organized crime.

• The U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Resource Manual Website, which includes information about what is required to file a RICO criminal indictment and what the review process entails.



•

Huffington Post blog about a new Illinois anti-gang law that uses RICO laws to target gang members.

• Cornell Law School website, which provides detailed information about RICO laws, such as definitions and the review process.



11. Understand that punishing solicitation is based on the same idea as punishing conspiracy: to stop such crimes from happening before they start, anticipating the dangers of group criminality.

Chapter Nine

Crimes against Persons I: Murder and Manslaughter

1. Understand that criminal homicide is different from all other crimes because of the finality of its result: the death of the victim.

• The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which includes data and statistics on crimes reported in the United States.



2. Appreciate that most of the law regarding criminal homicide is about grading the seriousness of the offense. Grading murder into first and second degree is important because only first-degree murder qualifies for the death penalty.

3. Appreciate that the meaning of “person” is integral to homicide law and understand how that presents problems at both ends of the life cycle.

4. Understand how degrees of murder developed though history and their relation to capital punishment.

•

The Innocence Project Website.

• The Death Penalty Information Center Website; information regarding the death penalty in Texas.



5. Know the elements of murder.

6. Learn the degrees of murder that exist in the United States today.

7. Know the definition, history and current use of felony murder as a charge.

• Ending the Felony Murder Rule in the Courts of the United States Website; argues that the felony murder rule should be abolished.



8. Understand how most criminal homicide statutes apply to corporations, but prosecutions are rare.

• Crime blog that addresses the question: Can a corporation commit murder?



9. Understand that the heart of voluntary manslaughter is an intentional, sudden killing triggered by an adequate provocation.

• Crime statistics on murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, organized by state:

(LO11)

10. Know that provocation is not an excuse for criminal homicide; it only reduces the seriousness of the crime and the punishment to allow for human frailty.

•

Campus Progress Website news release regarding a defendant using the gay panic defense.

11. Know that the central elements in involuntary manslaughter are its actus reus (voluntary act or omission) and its mens rea (unintentional killing); causing the criminal harm of death.

12. Understand that criminal negligence homicide statutes cover a wide field of unintentional deaths. the most common are those caused by operating vehicles and firearms, but they can also include medical malpractice, handling explosives, delivering dangerous drugs, allowing vicious animals to run free, failing to care for a sick child, and not providing fire exits in businesses.

• Center for Disease Control website. This link is to data for assaults and homicides in the United States.



Chapter Ten

Crimes Against Persons II: Sex Offenses, Bodily Injury, and Personal Restraint

1. Appreciate that voluntary and knowing consensual sexual behavior between two adults is legal, healthy, and desired.

• Federal Bureau of Investigation website. This link is to information available from the FBI.

(LO 2-15)

2. Know that crimes against persons boil down to four types: taking a life; unwanted sexual invasions; bodily injury; and personal restraint.

• Research from the Minnesota House of Representatives on Criminal Sexual Conduct Crimes.

(LO3, 4, 6)

3. Understand that the vast majority of rape victims are raped by individuals they know.

• Rape 101. com Website; includes information on acquaintance rapists, such as some warning signs.



• American Academy of Experts on Traumatic Stress Website, which provides information on acquaintance rape on college campuses.



4. Know that the requirements of common law rape have been dramatically altered in modern rape statutes.

• Sex Laws website. Provides links to a number of websites regarding sex laws, answers to questions, and links to news.

(LO3; LO5-10)

5. Know that during the 1970s and 1980s, sexual assault reform changed the face of criminal sexual assault law.

6. Know and understand the elements of modern rape law.

7. Understand that force beyond that required to complete sexual penetration or contact is not always required to satisfy the force requirement in rape.

8. Understand that rape can be accomplished with no extrinsic force or threat of force – if fraud of fact or fraud of inducement are used by the perpetrator.

9. Know that rape is a general-intent crime.

10. Remember that statutory rape is a strict liability crime in most states.

• Connecticut General Assembly Website: Research Report on Statutory Rape Laws in the 50 states.



11. Know that sex offenses are graded based on several criteria.

12. Know that assault and battery are two separate crimes.

• Global Legal Resources Website, which provides information about the differences between assault and battery.

(LO11)

13. Appreciate that since the early 1970s, domestic violence crimes have been transformed from a private concern to a criminal justice problem.

• Women’s Law Website: Information for women experiencing domestic violence.



• Domestic Violence website. Provides information about domestic violence.



14. Remember that stalking, although an ancient practice, is a new crime based on causing fear.

• Criminal stalking laws by state:



• Stalking Resource Center website. This link is to information on resources available for victims of stalking.



15. Know that kidnapping and false imprisonment violate the right of locomotion.

• Information about the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which influenced kidnapping laws in the United States.



• Information about the infamous Patty Hearst kidnapping:



• Information about kidnapping statistics and prevention:



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