Deck 6: Criminal Defenses: Justifications and Excuses

Question 1

Defenses to acts that deserve condemnation but the defendant is not held criminally responsible due to a personal disability such as infancy or insanity are called ______.

A) excuses
B) defenses
C) justifications
D) necessities

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Oliver was tried for murder and presented an insanity defense. The jury found Oliver not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds that he possessed a mental disease that prevented him from curbing his conduct. Which of the following tests for insanity did the jury apply?

A) Model Penal Code standard
B) irresistible impulse
C) M'Naghten
D) Durham product

Answer 2

B

Question 3

A defense claim that the defendant's conduct was the result of an irresistible impulse that resulted from the defendant's socially deprived childhood is consistent with which of the following defenses?

A) environmental defense
B) urban survivor
C) XYY chromosome
D) rotten social background

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Jan was tried for murder and presented an insanity defense. The jury found Jan not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds that her unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect. Which of the following tests for insanity did the jury apply?

A) Model Penal Code standard
B) irresistible impulse
C) M'Naghten
D) Durham product

Question 5

Under which of the following circumstances is consent not a defense?

A) when the victim forgives the perpetrator after a crime
B) bumping into someone while dancing at a nightclub
C) surgical procedure authorized by the patient
D) ordinary physical contact during a football game

Question 6

Requiring the state to prove every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt is consistent with the presumption of innocence.

Question 7

The validity of a self-defense claim is based on the subjective beliefs of the person employing self-defense.

Question 8

By the 17th century, the common law recognized that a juvenile's capacity to commit a crime was based on the juvenile's actual age.

Question 9

If a police officer uses unnecessary and unlawful force against an individual while executing an arrest, the individual may not use self-defense and is expected to seek civil or criminal remedies instead.

Question 10

A successful diminished capacity defense results in a complete acquittal of the charged offense and any lesser included offenses.

Question 11

Under normal circumstances, an aggressor is entitled to claim self-defense.

Question 12

Under Florida's Castle Doctrine, a person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is in a place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and may use deadly force if necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm.

Question 13

The alter ego rule applies an objective test of reasonableness to an act carried out in defense of another person.

Question 14

Under the English rule for resistance to an unlawful arrest, an individual may resist an unlawful arrest by using reasonable force.

Question 15

If a defendant is found incompetent to stand trial, this means that the defendant is also not guilty by reason of insanity.

Question 16

Distinguish the affirmative defenses of "justifications" and "excuses."

Question 17

Describe the verdict of "guilty but mentally ill" and discuss the implications of a finding that a defendant is "guilty but mentally ill."

Question 18

Discuss the three instances where consent is a defense to a crime. Provide an example of an instance where consent would not be a defense to a crime.

Question 19

List and distinguish the three categories into which juveniles are categorized under the common law.

Question 20

List and describe the five new sociological defenses.