Also known as: miscreants · wrongdoer · offender
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A person who commits a wrongful act.
Matthew Martinez depended on his live-in aide for medication and finances. The aide threatened to abandon him unless he signed a new will leaving everything to her. A court found the aide was the miscreant whose coercion overcame Matthew's free will and invalidated the will.
Marco Marquez served as probation officer for a known violent offender. He learned of an impending armed robbery yet deliberately failed to report or detain the offender to avoid paperwork. Marco was the miscreant who became an accomplice by breaching his legal duty.
Melanie Morris was seventeen when she committed capital murder. Prosecutors pursued the death penalty despite her age. The court identified the state as the miscreant attempting an unconstitutional execution barred by the Eighth Amendment.
Maya Malik managed her uncle's care during his final illness. She threatened to stop all assistance unless he executed a will favoring her over his children. The court treated Maya as the miscreant whose wrongful threat constituted duress.
Malcolm McKinley told his client a false story about the beneficiary's criminal conduct without verification. The client then amended his trust to favor Malcolm. Malcolm was the miscreant whose reckless misrepresentation procured the transfer by fraud.
Michelle Murphy openly practiced plural marriage in violation of federal statute. Prosecutors charged her as the miscreant whose conduct the Supreme Court upheld as punishable despite religious claims.
George Reynolds, a longtime member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was indicted in the District Court of the third judicial district of the Territory of Utah for bigamy after entering a second marriage to Amelia Jane Schofield while his first wife remained alive. Reynolds had obtained permission from recognized church authorities to contract the polygamous marriage. He and other male church members believed the practice was a religious duty enjoined by divine revelation to Joseph Smith. Refusal would bring damnation when circumstances permitted. The grand jury that returned the indictment consisted of fifteen persons under a territorial statute. This differed from the sixteen to twenty-three persons required by federal statute for United States circuit and district courts. During voir dire, the trial court overruled Reynolds's challenges for cause to prospective jurors including Charles Read who stated they had formed opinions about the case. The court sustained government challenges to other prospective jurors who were or had been living in polygamy. At trial the prosecution offered the transcript of testimony given by Amelia Jane Schofield at an earlier prosecution of Reynolds for the same offense under a different indictment. The government showed that subpoenas were served at Reynolds's house. An officer was told the witness was not at home. Reynolds declined to disclose her location. A later subpoena with the correct name also failed to locate her. Reynolds had been present and able to cross-examine at the prior trial but offered no explanation for her absence. Reynolds requested a jury instruction that he must be acquitted if the jury found he acted in the sincere belief that the second marriage fulfilled a religious duty. The court refused and instead instructed that religious belief could not excuse a knowing violation of the criminal law. The court further instructed the jury to consider the consequences of polygamy for innocent women and children. Reynolds was convicted and the case reached the Supreme Court of the United States on writ of error.
View caseA miscreant becomes an accomplice by failing to fulfill a legal duty to prevent the offense when the person has the purpose of promoting the crime.
A miscreant who was under eighteen at the time of the capital crime is categorically ineligible for execution under the Eighth Amendment.
…intended is guilty as an accomplice. "Art. 1193. Attempt at abortion "If the means used shall fail to produce an abortion, the offender is nevertheless guilty of an attempt to produce abortion, provided it be shown that such means were calculated to produce that result, and shall be fined not less than one hundred nor more…