Actus Reus Figure 2-1 Summary

WEEK1 assign
Aside from watching the daily and nightly news, people nowadays rely on internet, you tube and even smart phones to get the latest news and happenings around the country. News about murder, fatal killings, sex, drugs, and police brutality are found interesting by public. News involving celebrity, sports and athletes, politicians and various authority figures are also among the popular stories followed by the media.
Recently, a homicide news involving the mayor of Bell Gardens, Southern California aired in the news and captured the attention of not only the local followers but the nation as well. Mayor Daniel Crespo, 45, was fatally shot in his own home after an argument by the couple. Promptly pronounced dead in the hospital,
(as shown in the book) Figure 2–1 illustrates the relationship between mens rea and actus reus. Criminality exists when the two concur and where no defense, as characterized in the figure, exists. Defenses in this figure refer to the zone of individual liberties over which governments have no authority to regulate and to those instances where other factual or legal defenses free an individual from criminal responsibility. Hence, as discussed in this chapter, the essence of criminal conduct consists of a concurrence of a criminal act with a culpable mental state.” In the case of the shooting of Mayor Crespo, wife Lyvette ‘actus reus’ or the criminal act is the shooting of her husband. ‘Mens rea’ is the wife’s culpable (or responsible) mental state during the incident. A concurrence of the two – actus reus and mens rea is clearly observed in the shooting, and this clearly constitutes as crime. Whatever outcome this may have in the coming days or weeks, I will be one of many spectators who wait for the full story and final decision. One thing is clear; a crime was obviously committed at the night of the