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| 8 defendants convicted of vagrancy in Florida under an ordinance code. Whether the statute is vague and unconstitutional under the 14th amendment? Yes “fails to give person of ordinary intelligence fair notice” & “encourages arbitrary & erratic convictions.” Standard of rule in applying discretion. |
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| Lawson was detained or arrested 15 times in a 2 year period. He was convicted and filed appeal saying the statute was unconstitutional “sought a mandatory injunction to restrain enforcement”. Applies void-for-vagueness doctrine. |
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| City of Chicago v. Morales |
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| void for vagueness doctrine applied. Chicago enacted a policy prohibiting “criminal street gang members” and was struck down for being too broad. |
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| death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment when applied to rape, death penalty the crime is grossly disproportionate |
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| 3 strikes law is upheld and is not grossly disproportionate |
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| McCleskey killed a public officer (white) killed while committing an armed robbery at a convenience store. Whether the Georgia capital punishment statute violates the EPC of 14th amendment? No, because discrimination is unintentional. |
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| Black man beat up white man because of his race. Question is whether the penalty enhancement is unconstitutional based on 1st and 14th amendment. Yes, motive has always been used to determine sentencing different than mens rea (thought) v. motivation (why). |
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| recognizes that narcotic addiction is an illness, cannot convict someone as being a drug user, must have used drugs in CA, status w/o act= cannot be convicted |
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| status w/ act= can be convicted, having a disease status but because he actually acted and committed the crime he could be convicted |
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| man lied to pass certain security requirements for a job. He said he didn’t know that he had to disclose and that he was unsure that he was disclosing to a federal agency. The statute was ambiguous because they didn’t know which part the “actual knowledge” applied to either that he lied or that he responded to a federal agency. |
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| statutory confusion over whether defendant wanted to kill the person or would kill the person to complete the crime. Statute only requires to prove that the man would kill if necessary. |
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| KKK member burns a cross at a rally, arrested under Virginia statute saying that cross burning is illegal. Court rules it is unconstitutional because of burden shift. Any burning of a cross is intent to scare, court overrules. |
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| Man took casings from U.S. property. Charged with strict liability crime because statute did not have intent requirement but supreme court said that just because there is no intent requirement that does not mean that it is strict liability. Intent is inherent in this case. Overturned. |
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| A mistake of law that the tax code is unconstitutional does not negate mens rea. You should obey the law and then contest the constitutionality of the law not break the law and then use the constitutionality of the law as a defense. |
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| man was dealing firearms illegally, but the statute used the term willfully. Appealed saying the statute did not say if he either 1) knew that his conduct was wrong or 2) had to know of the licensing requirement. Knowingly does not have any reference to a state of mind or to the knowledge of the law. Knowingly merely requires facts of the offense that constitutes the crime. Majority states that he knew all of his actions were illegal, even if he didn’t know about the licensing requirement. |
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| man was dealing firearms illegally, but the statute used the term willfully. Appealed saying the statute did not say if he either 1) knew that his conduct was wrong or 2) had to know of the licensing requirement. Knowingly does not have any reference to a state of mind or to the knowledge of the law. Knowingly merely requires facts of the offense that constitutes the crime. Majority states that he knew all of his actions were illegal, even if he didn’t know about the licensing requirement. |
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| registration, didn’t know to register, can’t be convicted because he did not know to register. Failure to register was a passive act and he had no mens rea to avoid registering he just was unaware of when to register. |
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