June 11, 2015, Introduced by Rep. McBroom and referred to the Committee on Oversight and Ethics.
A bill to amend 1846 RS 1, entitled
"Of the statutes,"
(MCL 8.1 to 8.8) by adding section 9.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 9. (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, a
person is not guilty of a criminal offense unless both of the
following apply:
(a) The person's criminal liability is based on conduct that
includes either a voluntary act or an omission to perform an act or
duty that the person is capable of performing.
(b) The person has the requisite degree of culpability for
each element of the offense as to which a culpable mental state is
specified by the language defining the offense.
(2) If the statutory language defining a criminal offense does
not specify any degree of culpability and plainly imposes strict
criminal liability for the conduct described in the statute, then
culpability is not required for a person to be guilty of the
offense. The fact that a subsection of a statute plainly imposes
strict liability for an offense defined in that subsection does not
by itself plainly impose strict criminal liability for an offense
defined in another subsection of that statute that does not specify
a degree of culpability.
(3) Except as provided in subsection (4), if statutory
language defining an element of a criminal offense that is related
to knowledge or intent or as to which mens rea could reasonably be
applied neither specifies culpability nor plainly imposes strict
liability, the element of the offense is established only if a
person acts with intent, knowledge, or recklessness.
(4) Subsection (3) does not relieve the prosecution of the
burden of proving the culpable mental state required by any
definition incorporated into the offense.
(5) When a statute defining a criminal offense provides that
negligence suffices to establish an element of the offense, then
intent, knowledge, or recklessness is also sufficient culpability
to satisfy that element. If knowledge suffices to establish an
element of an offense, then intent is also sufficient culpability
to satisfy that element.
(6) It is not a defense to a crime that the defendant was, at
the time the crime occurred, under the influence of or impaired by
a voluntarily and knowingly consumed alcoholic liquor, drug,
including a controlled substance, other substance or compound, or
combination of alcoholic liquor, drug, or other substance or
compound. However, it is an affirmative defense to a specific
intent crime, for which the defendant has the burden of proof by a
preponderance of the evidence, that he or she voluntarily ingested
a legally obtained and properly used medication or other substance
and did not know and reasonably should not have known that he or
she would become intoxicated or impaired.
(7) This section does not apply to crimes under any of the
following:
(a) The Michigan vehicle code, 1949 PA 300, MCL 257.1 to
257.923.
(b) The Michigan penal code, 1931 PA 328, MCL 750.1 to
750.568.
(c) Article 7 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL
333.7101 to 333.7545.
(d) Chapter 752 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
(8) As used in this section:
(a) "Culpable" means sufficiently responsible for criminal
acts or negligence to be at fault and liable to punishment for
commission of a crime.
(b) "Intent" means a desire or will to act with respect to a
material element of an offense if both of the following
circumstances exist:
(i) The element involves the nature of a person's conduct or a
result of that conduct, and it is the person's conscious object to
engage in conduct of that nature or to cause that result.
(ii) The element involves the attendant circumstances, and the
person is aware of the existence of those circumstances or believes
or hopes that they exist.
(c) "Intoxicated or impaired" includes, but is not limited to,
a condition of intoxication resulting from the ingestion of
alcoholic liquor, a controlled substance, or alcoholic liquor and a
controlled substance. As used in this subdivision:
(i) "Alcoholic liquor" means that term as defined in section
105 of the Michigan liquor control code of 1998, 1998 PA 58, MCL
436.1105.
(ii) "Controlled substance" means that term as defined in
section 7104 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL 333.7104.
(iii) "Ingestion" means to have eaten, drunk, ingested,
inhaled, injected, or topically applied, or to have performed any
combination of those actions, or otherwise introduced into the
body.
(d) "Knowledge" means awareness or understanding with respect
to a material element of an offense if both of the following
circumstances exist:
(i) The element involves the nature or the attendant
circumstances of the person's conduct, and the person is aware that
his or her conduct is of that nature or that those circumstances
exist.
(ii) The element involves a result of the person's conduct,
and the person is aware that it is practically certain that his or
her conduct will cause that result.
(e) "Negligence" means the failure to use reasonable care with
respect to a material element of an offense to avoid consequences
that are the foreseeable outcome of the person's conduct with
respect to a material element of an offense and that threaten or
harm the safety of another.
(f) "Recklessness" means a person's conscious disregard of a
substantial and unjustifiable risk that a material element exists
or will result from the person's conduct, if the risk is of a
nature and degree that, considering the nature and purpose of the
person's conduct and the circumstances known to the person, the
person's disregard of the risk is a gross deviation from the
standard of conduct that a law-abiding and reasonable person would
observe in the person's situation.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days
after the date it is enacted into law.
Enacting section 2. This amendatory act only applies to crimes
committed on or after the date this amendatory act is enacted into
law.