LAW, CRIMINAL, that department of jurisprudence which treats of violations of public law. Crimes or punishable offenses'against the public are divided into treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors—any offense inferior in degree to a felony being a misde meanor. Offenses are further distinguished as such in themselves, mala in se, i.e., offenses regarded* by the general moral. sentiment of the community as notoriously immoral and injurious to the public: and as offenses by statute, mate, prohibiz,a, i.e., acts which are made offenses by enactment, but which in the absence of statutory pro. hibition would not be wrong or immoral. The criminal law regards certain persons. whose reason or will is deficient or subjected to constraint by others, as incapable of committing criminal acts. Lunacy or idiocy will be a sufficient excuse, but the accused is presumed to be of sound mind till the contrary is shown. An infant, from birth up to the age of seven, is conclusively presumed incapable of crime; from seven to fourteen there is still a presumption iu his favor, though not conclusive, but rebuttable; after the age of fourteen he is'presumed to be capable, and the burden of proof lies upon him to show that he is not. Drunkenness, though it may sometimes have a bearing on the question of intent, is no excuse for criminal acts committed during intoxication or as its immediate result; but, it is otherwise where continued habits of drunkenness are the more or less proximate cause of insanity. A married woman, acting by the command and under the coercion of her husband, will not be responsible; but such coercion must be shown and will not be presumed from the mere presence of the husband. Duress, actual physical constraint, or extreme bodily fear, caused by-acts or threats of violence, will sometimes excuse an otherwise criminal act. In such a case the degree of violence must be such as would exercise a constraint upon a reasonable and prudent man. Acts which are the result of mistake or inevitable necessity, and to which consequently intent is wanting, will be excused, but ignorance or mistake as to the law will not excuse.
Rights of the accused.—By the constitution of the United States the accused has a right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him and to be confronted with the witnesses against him. The prisoner cannot be brought to trial till a grand jury has found a true bill against him; he is then entitled to a trial by an impar tial jury of his peers, whose finding upon matters of fact is conclusive. The criminal law presumes the accused to be innocent till his guilt is established, and in passing upon his guilt or innocence the jury cannot bring in a verdict of guilty upon such evidence as would justify a verdict for or against a party in a civil suit. In the latter a jury renders a verdict for the party in whose favor there is a preponderance of evidence; in a criminal cause a verdict of guilty is not justifiable unless the minds of the jurymen are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused. The accused cannot be com pelled to criminate hiMself, nor can his general character and habits be examined at the trial to show the probability of his guilt. No person can be punished for an act which lies been made an offense by a law subsequent to the commission of the act, nor can any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense. The old rule of
the criminal law prohibiting the accused from testifying in his own behalf has been abolished in many states of the union, and the change on the whole has worked well. The criminal law distinguishes criminals according to the degree of their participation as principals and accessories. A principal is the person who immediately commits the unlawful act; a principal in the second degree is a person who did not immediately commit the act, but who was present at its commission, aiding and abetting it. A prin• cipal in the second degree need not be actually, but only constructively present. It is sufficient that by arraugement with the principal he is in a position where lie can help in the commission of the act. An accessory before the fact is one who procures another to commit a felony without being himself present at its commission. There can be ne accessories to treason on account of its heinousness. to manslaughter on account of its suddenness, or to misdemeanors. An accessory before the fact is equally guilty with the principal of the act committed by the principal at his instigation; but if the prin cipal, being procured by the accessory to commit a certain crime, commit another and different crime nOt a natural consequence of the former, the accessory to the first act will not be held accessory to the second. Thus, if one procure another to commit burglary, and the principal commit the totally different crime of arson, the first person will not be liable as an accessory to the arson. An accessory after the fact is one who gives aid and comfort to a felon after the felony, knowing him to have committed it. But a wife is not such accessory for receiving and aiding her husband guilty of felony. As an accessory is not guilty unless his principal be guilty, he cannot be tried unless his principal have been convicted; but, even if his principal have been convicted, the acces sory may still dispute his principal's guilt at his own trial.
The various offenses of which the criminal law takes cognizance may be classified as 1. Offenses against the sovereign or state: treason, misprision of treason. 2. Offenses against the public or the persons and property of individuals: conspiracy. 3. Offenses against the persons of individuals: abduction, assault and battery, attempts to commit homicide, false imprisonment, homicide, kidnaping, mayhem, rape, robbery. 4. Offenses against the property of individuals: arson, burglary, embezzlement, false pretenses, larceny, malicious mischief. 5. Offenses against public property. 6. Offenses against public justice: barratry, bribery, champerty, of felony, contempt of court, destruction of public records, escape, extortion, jail-breach. maintenance, oppression, perjury, resistance to officers, suppression of evidence. 7. Offenses against the public peace: breach of the peace, challenging to a duel, libel, riot, rout, unlawful assembly. 8. Offenses against public policy: counterfeiting, false currency, forgery, gambling„Lateries, nuisance, violation of suffrage laws, violation of game laws. 9. Offenses against public morality: adultery; bestiality, bigamy, blasphemy, cruelty to animals, drunkenness, fornication, incest. keeping house of ill-fame, obscenity, pro fanity, sabbath-breaking, seduction, sodomy. See the articles on these offenses, and further, CRIME;. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; PROSECUTION; ante.