Learning Objectives

  1. Understand the presumption of innocence.
     
  2. Appreciate the distinction between justifications and excuses.
     
  3. Know the tests for the insanity defense and the significance of “guilty but mentally ill” and of “diminished capacity.”
     
  4. Know the relationship between age and the capacity to form a criminal intent and the factors that a court will consider in determining whether a juvenile is capable of forming a criminal intent.
     
  5. List and explain the elements of self-defense.
     
  6. State the two tests for the defense of others.
     
  7. Know the law on defense of the home and the significance of the “Castle Doctrine.”
     
  8. Understand the legal test for police use of deadly force.
     
  9. Appreciate the distinction between the American and European rules for resistance to an unlawful arrest.
     
  10. Understand the elements of the necessity defense.
     
  11. Know the three situations in which the law recognizes consent as a defense to criminal conduct.
     
  12. Understand the “new defenses” and the arguments for recognizing “new defenses.”