CRW2601 Exam Questions and Answers

CRW2601 Exam Questions and Answers November 2015 Section A Question 1 1.1 (a) The four requirements of criminal liability are the following conduct (act or omission), compliance with the definitional elements of the offence, unlawfulness and culpability. (b) In terms of the ius acceptum principle a court may only find a person guilty of an offence if the kind of act performed is recognized as a crime at the time of its commission. (c) The ius praevium principle requires that a court may only find a person guilty of an offence if the kind of act performed was recognized as a crime at the time of its commission. All statements are correct. 1.2 (a) A South African court is allowed to create new crimes if the court is of the opinion that the particular conduct is against the good morals of society. (b) A provision which reads as follows “Nobody may criticise the government and anybody who contravenes this provision is guilty of a crime” complies with the ius certum rule of the principle of legality. (c) In Masiya v Director of Public Prosecutions 2007 (2) SACR 435 (CC) the Constitutional Court extended the definition of the crime of rape in order to give effect to the rights of women to dignity, privacy and sexual autonomy. Only statement (c) is correct 1.3 (a) The rules of the principles of legality need not be complied with in the context of punishment. (b) X performs a voluntary act if he can subject his bodily movements to his will or intellect. (c) If a person acted negligently, it means that he did not perform a voluntary act. Only statement (b) is correct. 1.4 (a) If Y tells X that he will kill him unless he (X) kills Z and as a result of this threat X kills Z, then he (X) acts in a situation of absolute force. (b) Sane automatism means that a person did not act voluntarily as a result of mental illness. (c) In Henry 1999 (1) SACR 12 (SCA) the accused. Who had shot his wife in a fit of rage relied upon the defence of insane automatism. None of the statements are correct. 1.5 (a) An omission is punishable only if there is a legal duty upon X to act positively. (b) The defence of impossibility may be raised if it is objectively impossible for X to comply with a criminal norm which places a positive duty upon him to act. (c) Causation is a requirement in all materially-defined crimes. All the above statements are correct. 1.6 (a) Teachers may not impose corporal punishment on children. (b) If X sees that Y is attacked by Z and helps to defend Y, he (X) cannot rely on private defence since he does not defend his own life or property. (c) Killing an innocent person in a situation of necessity can never be a defence but only a mitigating circumstance. Only statement (a) and (b) are correct. 1.7 (a) In a crime requiring intention, the intention requirement is satisfied irrespective of whether X had intention in the form of direct intention, indirect intention or dolus eventualis. (b) If X wants to kill his enemy Z, but realizes that in order to kill Z, he will necessarily have to break into his (Z’s) house, he has indirect intention with regard to the crime of housebreaking with the intent to commit a crime. (c) In order to have intention, X’s knowledge must refer to all the elements of the offence, excluding the element culpability. All these statements are correct. 1.8 (a) If X fires a shot at an object believing it to be an animal and it turns out to be a human being, X can, on a charge of murder, rely on the defence of mistake. (b) Whether X had intention to commit an offence necessarily involves an investigates into his motive for committing the offence, (c) Aberratio ictus is a form of mistake which affords X a defence provided it was a material mistake. Only statement (a) is correct. 1.9 (a) If X fires a shot at his enemy, Y, and the bullet hits the wall, ricochets and fatally injures Z who suddenly appears behind Y, the transferred-culpability approach requires that X be convicted of murder in respect of Z. (b) An accessory after the fact is regarded as a participant in a crime. (c) A “joiner in” is a person who joins in an attack at a stage when the victim had already died as a result of the wound inflicted by other persons who acted in a common purpose. Only statement (a) is correct. 1.10 (a) An interrupted attempt at a crime can still amount to a punishable attempt provided X’s actions qualify as acts of execution. (b) If X thinks that it is a crime to commit adultery and then commits adultery, he may be convicted of an attempt to commit the impossible. (c) If X fires a shot while he (Y) is driving a vehicle with bullet proof windows and Y is not injured, X may be convicted of attempted murder provided the state can prove that X had the intention to kill Y. Only statements (a) and (c) are correct. Section B Question 1(a)