How Does Ellie Commit Burglary

Question 1
As Ellie’s lawyer, I would start off with the burglary charge, as felony murder would go away if she committed no felony separate from the murder. Ellie would likely be found not guilty of burglary at common law. A burglary occurs when a person “enters a building… or separately secured or occupied portion thereof, with purpose to commit a crime therein,” (MPC, § 221.1 (1)). Looking at the statutory definition of burglary, Ellie did not commit burglary because she lacked the mens rea element of intent (“purpose to commit a crime therein”). Ellie was only attempting to get into her own apartment through what she thought was her window -- she had no “conscious objective” to commit a crime, so she could not have been committing a burglary. Although she did have a knife in her purse, this was solely for her protection if someone attacked her because she knew she would be walking home after the party. It’s not relevant that Ellie would have an exception to the burglary if she was “licensed or privileged” to enter because she was voluntarily intoxicated and there was no mens rea (no
In voluntary manslaughter, a killing that would otherwise be murder is performed “in the heat of passion.” It was not just his words/vocalizations that caused Ellie to murder Howard -- it was the sexual assault that, due to her earlier intoxication, she had just realized occurred. Like a reasonable person would in this situation, Ellie had an emotional response to Howard’s actions, leading her to act as she did. This is similar to State v. Guthrie, where the individual “snapped” after being made fun of and spontaneously, but intentionally killed the other individual, here, Ellie snapped and killed Howard after her realization that she was raped and he laughed her off as he “finally [got] Ellie.” Here, Ellie would likely be found guilty of voluntary