What is the Criminal Process?
Defenses and Punishment:
In some criminal trials, the prosecutor proves all the elements of a crime but the person accused is not punished because he or she has a valid defense.
Self-defense sometimes is used as a defense. The general rule for self-defense is that a person may use any amount of force except deadly force that he or she reasonably believes is necessary to prevent immediate unlawful harm to a person. Using deadly force is permissible only when it reasonably appears to be necessary to avoid immediate death or serious injury to a person, or to prevent the commission of a felony in the actor's dwelling. If a person claims that he or she acted in self-defense, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that self-defense was not the reason for the crime.
By itself, intoxication is not a defense to a crime. In rare cases, intoxication works like a defense, if there is proof that the person accused of the crime was unable to form the necessary intent to commit a crime. Someone who is intoxicated may not be found guilty of a crime that requires he or she acted intentionally, but the intoxicated person may be guilty of another crime that does not require intentional actions.
In the area of white collar crime, the same defenses are available to defendants as those available in crimes generally. Some people accused of white collar crimes also claim entrapment by the government; they argue they were induced to act, and would not have acted unlawfully otherwise. Another common defense by businesses is that a particular businessperson was acting alone, without the authority of the company behind him or her. Businesses further argue that once it was discovered that an officer or employee was acting unlawfully, the business acted immediately to resolve the situation. Sometimes a business avoids criminal liability altogether if it shows that it took proper action to correct a situation as soon as managers were made aware of a problem.
Felonies and white collar crimes carry the strictest punishments, such as lengthy imprisonment, heavy fines, or even death. California also has laws that allow the authorities to seize property connected with the commission of a crime. For example, a person charged with violating laws connected with controlled substances must forfeit the substances as well as the raw materials used to make the drugs, vehicles and property used to further the crime, and any money or other proceeds from the sale of the controlled substances. Similarly, any person who is found guilty of murder, manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon, or a similar crime from or involving a motor vehicle and by using a firearm, must forfeit the vehicle for sale by California authorities.
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