Notes & Questions (State v. Miles)

Material Elements

When a statute defining a crime specifies a culpable mens rea, but there is some ambiguity about whether the mens rea applies to all or only some elements of the crime, the courts construe the statute to apply the specified mens rea to all material elements of the crime.

This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.