Source: http://academy.lawofselfdefense.com/statute/co-18-1-501-definitions/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 17:10:51+00:00

Document:
(1) “Act” means a bodily movement, and includes words and possession of property.
(2) “Conduct” means an act or omission and its accompanying state of mind or, where relevant, a series of acts or omissions.
(3) “Criminal negligence”. A person acts with criminal negligence when, through a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise, he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists.
(4) “Culpable mental state” means intentionally, or with intent, or knowingly, or willfully, or recklessly, or with criminal negligence, as these terms are defined in this section.
(5) “Intentionally” or “with intent”. All offenses defined in this code in which the mental culpability requirement is expressed as “intentionally” or “with intent” are declared to be specific intent offenses. A person acts “intentionally” or “with intent” when his conscious objective is to cause the specific result proscribed by the statute defining the offense. It is immaterial to the issue of specific intent whether or not the result actually occurred.
(6) “Knowingly” or “willfully”. All offenses defined in this code in which the mental culpability requirement is expressed as “knowingly” or “willfully” are declared to be general intent crimes. A person acts “knowingly” or “willfully” with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense when he is aware that his conduct is of such nature or that such circumstance exists. A person acts “knowingly” or “willfully”, with respect to a result of his conduct, when he is aware that his conduct is practically certain to cause the result.
(7) “Omission” means a failure to perform an act as to which a duty of performance is imposed by law.
(8) “Recklessly”. A person acts recklessly when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur or that a circumstance exists.
(9) “Voluntary act” means an act performed consciously as a result of effort or determination, and includes the possession of property if the actor was aware of his physical possession or control thereof for a sufficient period to have been able to terminate it.
HISTORY: Source: L. 71: R&RE, p. 403, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 40-1-601.L. 75: (3), (5), (6), and (8) R&RE, p. 616, § 1, effective July 21.L. 77: (4) amended and (5) and (6) R&RE, p. 959, § § 1, 2, effective July 1.
Law reviews: For article, “Pronouncements of the U.S. Supreme Court Relating to the Criminal Law Field: 1985-1986”, which discusses a case relating to erroneous malice presumption, see 15 Colo. Law. 1616 (1986).
Law reviews. For comment on Trujillo v. People (133 Colo. 186, 292 P.2d 980 (1956)), see 28 Rocky Mt. L. Rev. 409 (1956), For article, “Homicides Under the Colorado Criminal Code”, see 49 Den. L.J. 137 (1972). For article, “Mens Rea and the Colorado Criminal Code”, see 52 U. Colo. L. Rev. 167 (1981).
Annotator’s note. Since § 18-1-501 (1) is similar to former § 40-1-2, C.R.S. 1963, and laws antecedent thereto, relevant cases construing those provisions have been included in the annotations to this section.
General assembly may establish statutory constituents of criminal culpability. The constitutional mandate requiring the prosecution to establish all essential elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt does not impair the general assembly’s competence to establish the statutory constituents of criminal culpability for various offenses and to formulate particular rules of justification or excuse for acts that otherwise might be criminally punishable. People v. Ledman, 622 P.2d 534 (Colo. 1981).
“Criminal negligence”, as applied to homicide, means a failure to perceive, through a gross deviation from the standard of reasonable care, a substantial and unjustifiable risk that death will result from certain conduct. People v. Taggart, 621 P.2d 1375 (Colo. 1981).
Instruction defining “intentionally” properly refused. Where defense requested instruction defining “intentionally” in terms of new statute which became effective July 1, 1972, but offense had occurred prior to that time, trial court did not err in refusing such request. People v. Crawford, 191 Colo. 504, 553 P.2d 827 (1976).
“Knowingly.” The definition of “knowingly” in subsection (6) is an accurate expression of the common-law understanding of “knowingly”. City of Englewood v. Hammes, 671 P.2d 947 (Colo. 1983).
The definition of “knowingly” or “willfully” in subsection (6) applied in People v. Riley, 708 P.2d 1359 (Colo. 1985); People v. Eastepp, 884 P.2d 305 (Colo. 1994); People v. Parga, 964 P.2d 571 (Colo. App. 1998).
A person may be found to act “intentionally” even though the length of time for deliberation is not long. People v. Valenzuela, 825 P.2d 1015 (Colo. App. 1991), aff’d, 856 P.2d 805 (Colo. 1993).
A person acts intentionally if the person’s “conscious objective” is to cause the specific result prohibited by statute. People v. Moore, 877 P.2d 840 (Colo. 1994); People v. District Ct., 17th Jud. Dist., 926 P.2d 567 (Colo. 1996); People v. Madison, 176 P.3d 793 (Colo. App. 2007).
Phrase “reasonably should be aware” is not the equivalent of “knowingly”. People v. Etchells, 646 P.2d 950 (Colo. App. 1982); Espinoza v. People, 712 P.2d 476 (Colo. 1985).
Menacing is a general intent crime requiring only that the defendant be aware that the defendant’s conduct is practically certain to cause the result. People v. Zieg, 841 P.2d 342 (Colo. App. 1992).
Omission of conduct-and-circumstance factor from instruction on “knowingly” held not error. No substantial rights of the defendant are seriously affected by the omission of the conduct-and-circumstance factor of the mental culpability requirement of “knowingly” from the instructions, as provided in subsection (6), where the instruction given refers to both conduct and result. If one is aware that his conduct will achieve a certain result, then of necessity he must also be aware of that conduct. People v. Clark, 662 P.2d 1100 (Colo. App. 1982).
A mental culpability instruction defining “knowingly” as an awareness by the defendant that his conduct is “practically certain to cause the result” would necessarily require the jury to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that he also was aware that “his conduct is of such nature” and that “the circumstance exists” before he could be found guilty of these offenses. Although such an instruction is technically incomplete, the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on the conduct and circumstance components of “knowingly” is not plain error because the substantial rights of the defendant are not affected. People v. Derrerra, 667 P.2d 1363 (Colo. 1983).
“Knowingly” instruction which is equivalent to negligence is error. Where the court’s definition of “knowingly” permits a finding, not on the defendant’s guilty knowledge, but rather on a basis that amounts to a negligence standard, that instruction is fundamentally flawed. People v. Freeman, 668 P.2d 1371 (Colo. 1983).
Where an instruction permits the jury to find that the defendant acted intentionally on the basis of his actions alone, rather than on the precise “conscious objective” standard required by statute, the instruction is erroneous. People v. Freeman, 668 P.2d 1371 (Colo. 1983).
No requirement that “knowing conduct” be directed against person killed. There is no requirement that the “knowing conduct” essential to extreme indifference murder and second-degree murder be directed against the person actually killed. On the contrary, both offenses are general intent crimes, and as long as the offender knowingly acts in the proscribed manner and causes the death of another, he is guilty of the crime, even though the person killed is not the person against whom the criminal conduct was directed. People v. Marcy, 628 P.2d 69 (Colo. 1981).
“Recklessly” and “criminally negligent” distinguished. The difference between acting “recklessly” and being “criminally negligent” is the distinction between becoming aware of a risk yet consciously choosing to disregard it as opposed to negligently failing to become aware of the risk. People v. Bettis, 43 Colo. App. 104, 602 P.2d 877 (1979).
Instruction defining “recklessly” properly refused where it contained the term “accidentally”. People v. Bookman, 646 P.2d 924 (Colo. 1982).
Instruction defining “recklessly” pursuant to this section, rather than defining “reckless driving” under § 42-4-1401, was properly given as to an element of the offense of vehicular homicide involving reckless driving. The definition of “recklessly” in subsection (8) is contained in the criminal code and is plainly intended to be used in interpreting other statutory sections, such as vehicular homicide, within the criminal code. People v. Scarlett, 985 P.2d 36 (Colo. App. 1998).
“Recklessly” in second degree assault requires that a defendant consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a result will occur (or that a circumstance exists), not that a defendant disregard the result that ultimately occurs. Therefore, the People did not have to prove that defendant had knowledge of the existence of the specific deadly weapon held by the victim of the assault. People v. Brown, 677 P.2d 406 (Colo. App. 1983).
The phrase “starts or maintains a fire” in § 18-4-105 must be read in accordance with subsection (9) and § 18-1-502. People v. Garcia, 189 Colo. 347, 541 P.2d 687 (1975).
Intoxication provision applicable in analysis of “voluntary act”. Section 18-1-804 applies not only to the mental state of a defendant in general intent crimes but is also applicable in the analysis of a “voluntary act”, as that phrase is used in the definition of “criminal liability” in § 18-1-502. People v. Huskey, 624 P.2d 899 (Colo. App. 1980).
Applied in McPhee v. People, 105 Colo. 539, 100 P.2d 148 (1940); Gallegos v. Tinsley, 139 Colo. 157, 337 P.2d 386 (1959); Mora v. People, 172 Colo. 261, 472 P.2d 142 (1970); People v. District Court, 185 Colo. 78, 521 P.2d 1254 (1974); People v. White, 191 Colo. 353, 553 P.2d 68 (1976); People v. Sexton, 192 Colo. 181, 555 P.2d 1151 (1976); People v. Cornelison, 192 Colo. 337, 559 P.2d 1102 (1977); People v. Washburn, 197 Colo. 419, 593 P.2d 962 (1979); People v. Vigil, 43 Colo. App. 121, 602 P.2d 884 (1979); People v. Gallegos, 628 P.2d 999 (Colo. 1981); People v. Frysig, 628 P.2d 1004 (Colo. 1981); People v. Andrews, 632 P.2d 1012 (Colo. 1981); People v. Brown, 632 P.2d 1025 (Colo. 1981); People v. Christian, 632 P.2d 1031 (Colo. 1981); People v. Noble, 635 P.2d 203 (Colo. 1981); Bollier v. People, 635 P.2d 543 (Colo. 1981); People v. R.V., 635 P.2d 892 (Colo. 1981); People v. Morgan, 637 P.2d 338 (Colo. 1981); People v. Padilla, 638 P.2d 15 (Colo. 1981); People v. Madson, 638 P.2d 18 (Colo. 1981); People v. Mack, 638 P.2d 257 (Colo. 1981); People v. Thatcher, 638 P.2d 760 (Colo. 1981); People v. Founds, 631 P.2d 1166 (Colo. App. 1981); People v. Shaw, 646 P.2d 375 (Colo. 1982); Hendershott v. People, 653 P.2d 385 (Colo. 1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1225, 103 S. Ct. 1232, 75 L. Ed. 2d 466 (1983); People v. Bartowsheski, 661 P.2d 235 (Colo. 1983); People v. Giles, 662 P.2d 1073 (Colo. 1983); People v. Heller, 698 P.2d 1357 (Colo. App. 1984), rev’d on other grounds, 712 P.2d 1023 (Colo. 1986); People v. Lybarger, 700 P.2d 910 (Colo. 1985); People v. Breland, 728 P.2d 763 (Colo. App. 1986); People v. Bowman, 738 P.2d 387 (Colo. App. 1987); People v. District Court, 779 P.2d 385 (Colo. 1989).
By Andrew Branca| 2017-04-01T14:53:00+00:00	January 17th, 2015|Comments Off on CO 18-1-501. Definitions.

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