4. What kind of act ?
Act must be voluntary
defendant must choose to act ,must
have a guilty mind, involuntary act
,sleep walk ,Hypnosis and
convulsions will not support actus
reus .An act must be in physical
movement and voluntary.
5. Ex: king vs Cogdon -
Australian case 1950 –during the
Korean war defendant (mother ) killed
her daughter while sleeping walk, the
jury acquitted ,the woman thought
her daughter attacked by Korean ,the
jury agreed ,under those
circumstances the defendant act
involuntary.
6. What is an example of actus reus?
ACTUS REUS The external behaviour
or conduct which is prohibited by the
criminal law. Actus reus means more
than just 'guilty acts'. ... For example,
the actus reus of theft is taking
someone else's property, and the
actus reus of murder is unlawfully
killing another person.
7. Why is actus reus important?
Actus reus ("culpable action" in
Latin) is required to determine
whether a crime has been committed.
Actus reus must be present for a
criminal conviction-
8. Note all states do not adopt penal
code
in some states penal code a person
commits an offense only if he –
voluntarily engages in conduct
including an act ,an omission or
possession .
9. The following are not support actus reus
thoughts : you are free in your own
thoughts but criminal acts based on your
thoughts would be indicted persecuted.
status
status would not supported actus reus
Robinson v California case 1962,status of
drug addict ,can not be basis of criminal
persecution ,US supreme court stated
that it is status crime you cant be
convicted of drug addict .
10. Concepts
Omission ,crimes by omission
failure to act
crimes by omission require a duty
to act
note : general rule people owe no
duty to rescue others unless this
duty establish by law
11. Duty to act can arise from
Statute : it is your duty by law to
report child upuse or leaving the
scene of action although you have a
duty to stop when you get involved in
an accident and your failure to stop
would be omission and would be
persecuted for that.
12. Duty from relationship
parent –child duty to care –shelter
–food-
duty from contract
ex physician contracted with a
patient for special treatment and
care
life guard contracted to rescues
people at the sea shore
13. Possession concept
require knowing possession
,defendant knowingly obtained
or received the thing ,aware of
control over a thing had a
sufficient time to terminate
control or get rid of that thing.
14. Causation
note some acts are criminal even thought the
intended result does not occur ex ,lying to the jury
but the jury does not believe the lie , some crime
require a particular result Ex, death in homicide
cases, the act must be the cause of the result
factual case:
But for the act ,result would not occur
but note not all factual case a proximate legal
cause there may be intervening cause someone
else intervene in the picture that interrupted the
act and lead to different type of result so we look
for the similarity between intended result and your
actual result
