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Elements and Grading
A legislature defines a statute by its elements. It does so to ensure that what it defines is criminal. Selling an item is not a crime. Selling an illegal drug is a crime. The added element, drug (or, more precisely, controlled substance) is central to defining the criminal conduct. The legislature builds a statute by putting together usually a conduct element (or omission) plus some other elements that make that conduct criminal. The statute may contain a great many elements.
Our first job when confronted with a statute is to do the reverse, break it back down into its component elements.
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