Punishment Is Guilty

Tammy Thompson, mens rea is as you say, all about the mind and whether it is guilty or not. Punishment is only proper when the person has committed the physical act and had the mental state that is required by statute that defines the crime (Ennis, 2010). Some crimes focus on the mindset of a reasonable person in the offender’s situation which allows the prosecution to prove guilt based on objective knowledge. Other crimes require that the offender intended the result of his physical act which allows conviction on the offender’s subjective or actual objectives (Ennis, 2010).
For an offender to have violated the law, the court must determine whether the phrase “Knowing or having reasonable cause to believe” implicates a subjective standard