Another Hypothetical - As we saw in the prior post on this topic, strict liability crimes can be either partial – requiring proof of mens rea for some elements but not others – or complete – dispensing with mens rea entirely.

This post considers another hypothetical.

.................................................................................................................
This content is drawn from our Criminal Law tutorials on Mens Rea, which contain numerous hypotheticals. If you find this content helpful, you might want to try our free Criminal Law Advisor Course. You will need to register for our free account. It's fast, easy and, of course, free.
.................................................................................................................

Another Hypothetical - In some states, the crime of bigamy used to require proof of an intention to marry, but did not require any mens rea as to the defendant's awareness (or lack thereof) that he or she was still married to a previous spouse.

Assume that Bob lives in such a state. Bob thinks that his divorce from Carol is final, but due to a filing mix-up the divorce decree was never finalized. Bob marries Alice and is later prosecuted for bigamy.

Bob argues that he intentionally married Alice, but only because he reasonably believed his divorce from Carol was final.

Question Should Bob be convicted?

Answer and Analysis - Yes, because the statute applies partial strict liability, and the prosecutor only needs to prove that Bob intentionally married Alice.

The statute applies partial strict liability because mens rea is required for one element (marrying Alice), but not the other element (still being married to Carol).

Malum in Se versus Malum Prohibitum - Some crimes are considered malum in se (inherently wrong), while others are deemed malum prohibitum (wrong only because they are prohibited by law).

We explore this in our next post on the topic of strict liability.

The Law School Experience - These and related topics are covered in our tutorials on Criminal Law.

To explore some of our free materials, go to The Law School Experience.