The Freeman State

* All definitions are from Black's Law Dictionary, 9th Edition, unless otherwise indicated.  *

 

 

Accessory - A person who aids or contributes in the commission or concealment of a crime.  The person who aids, abets, commands, counsels, or otherwise encourages another to commit a crime.

 

 

Accessory After the Fact - One who, knowing that a felony has been committed by another, receives, relieves, comforts, or assists the felon, or in any manner aids him to escape arrest or punishment.  To be guilty of accessory after the fact one must have known that a completed felony was committed, and that the person aided was the guilty party.  The mere presence of the defendant at the scene of the crime will not preclude a convision as an accessory after the fact where evidence shows the defendant became involved in the crime after its commission.

 

 

Accomplice / Accessory Before the Fact - A person who is in any way involved with another in the commission of a crime.  A person who knowingly, voluntarily, and intentionally unites with the principal offender in committing a crime and thereby becomes punishable for it.  By definition, an accomplice must be a person who acts with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of the substantive offense for which he is charged.

 

 

Affray - The fighting, by mutual consent, of two or more persons in some public place, to the terror of onlookers.  The fighting must be mutual.  If one person unlawfully attacks another who resorts to self-defense, the first is guilty of assault and battery but there is no affray.

 

* Think Fight Club.

 

 

Arson - The malicious burning of someone else's dwelling house or outhouse that is either appurtenant to the dwelling house or within the curtilage.

 

* Traditional common law confines arson to the burning of another's dwelling or other buildings attached to it, though contemporary understanding would likely regard it as its modern statutory definition: the intentional and wrongful burning of someone else's property (as to destroy a building) or one's own property (as to fraudulently collect insurance).

 

 

Assault - The threat or use of force on another that causes the person to have a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact; the act of putting another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of an immediate battery by means of an act amounting to an attempt or threat to commit a battery.  An attempt to commit battery, requiring the specific intent to cause physical injury.

 

* Most people conflate the words "assault" and "battery," perhaps because the two are often used together in a charge of "assault and battery."  In modern usage, "assault" has come to refer to any attack, particularly a physical attack; though traditionally it was distinct from "battery" in that it was merely a threat or attempt, not necessarily the injury itself.

 

 

Assault (with Intent) - Any of several assaults that are carried out with an additional criminal purpose in mind, such as assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to rob, assault with intent to rape, and assault with intent to inflict great bodily injury.

 

* Only some of these are common law offenses while others are statutory offenses, presumably because under common law each separate offense would carry a separate charge, though legislatures wanted to extend different penalties when compared to general assault.  "Aggravated assault" and "assault with a deadly weapon" are other forms of statutory assault.

 

 

Attempt - An overt act that is done with the intent to commit a crime but that falls short of completing the crime itself.  It consists of steps taken in furtherance of an indictable offense which the person attempting intends to carry out if he can.

 

 

Barratry - The buying or selling of ecclesiastical or governmental positions; the crime committed by a judge who accepts a bribe in exchange for a favorable decsion.

 

 

Battery - The use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact; an intentional and offensive touching of another without lawful justification.  A battery is the actual application of force to the body of the prosecutor.  It is, in other words, the assault brought to completion.  Thus, if a man strike at another man with his cane and misses him, it is an assault; if he hits him, it is a battery.  But the slightest degree of force is sufficient, provided that if be applied in a hostile manner; as by pushing a man or spitting in his face.  Touching a man to attract his attention to some particular matter, or a friendly slap on the back is not battery, owing to the lack of hostile intention.

 

 

Blasphemy - Irreverence toward God, religion, a religious icon, or something else considered sacred.

 

* Blasphemy is unlikely to be regarded as a crime in a secular society.

 

 

Breach (of Close) - The unlawful or unauthorized entry on another person's land.

 

* What we typically think of as trespass.  The term "close" refers to the concept of land being enclosed in three-dimensional space by some sort of defining landmark or boundary that distinguishes it from other land.  Many maxims of law speak to the rights of landowners as extending from the center of the earth up to the sky, and not just at ground-level.

 

 

Breach (of Contract) - Violation of a contractual obligation by failing to perform one's own promise, by repudiating it, or by interfering with another party's performance.  A breach may be one by non-performance, or by repudiation, or by both.  Every breach gives rise to a claim for damages, and may give rise to other remedies.  Even if the injured party sustains no pecuniary loss or is unable to show such loss with sufficient certainty, he has at least a claim for nominal damages.  If a court chooses to ignore a trifling departure, there is no breach and no claim arises.

 

 

Breach (of Peace) - The criminal offense of creating a public disturbance or engaging in disorderly conduct, particularly by making an unecessary or distracting noise.  A breach of the peace takes place when either an assault is commited on an individual or public alarm and excitement is caused.  Mere annoyance or insult is not enough: thus at common law a householder could not give a man into custody for violently and persistently ringing his door-bell.  It is the particular duty of a magistrate or police officer to preserve the peace unbroken; hence if he has reasonable cause to believe that a breach of the peace is imminent, he may be justified in committing an assault or effecting an arrest.

 

 

Breach (of Prison) -

 

 

Breach (of Trust) - A trustee's violation of either the trust's terms or the trustee's general fiduciary obligations; the violation of a duty that equity imposes on a trustee, whether the violation was willful, fraudulent, negligent, or inadvertent.  A breach of trust subjects the trustee to removal and creates personal liability.

 

 

Bribery - The corrupt payment, receipt, or solicitation of a private favor for official actions.

 

* Historically, there is no clear cut answer as to whether the payment of a bribe and the receipt of a bribe is one offense or two.  It is largely a matter of semantics whether the one is bribery and the other barratry, or if both constitute bribery.

 

 

Burglary - An unlawful or unprivileged entry into, or remaining in, a building or structure with intent to commit a crime.

 

* Generally known by its more common statutory name: breaking and entering.

 

 

Challenging to Fight -

 

 

Champerty - An agreement to divide litigation proceeds between the owner of the litigated claim and a party unrelated to the lawsuit who supports or helps enforce the claims.  The rule of champerty has been generally relaxed under modern decisions and a majority of courts now recognize that an agreement by which the attorney is to receive a contingent fee, i.e. a certain part of the avails of a suit or an amount fixed with reference to the amount recovered is valid as long as the attorney does not agree to pay the expenses and costs of the action.

 

* Champtery is the principle that it is unlawful for someone to agree to aid in legal action and that you only have to pay for their services "if you win" - the idea being that this constitutes a fraud or else a contract with unequal consideration.  In modern times, however, this is practive is generally allowed since it is presumed the assistant is entering such a contract knowingly and willingly; although if the person puts up any of their own money, they may be able to seek compensation as a generic damage depending on the terms of the agreement.  It is possible that champtery is an outdated law and that general contract law supercedes it.

 

 

Cheating - The fraudulent obtaining of another's property by means of a false symbol or token, or by other illegal practices [such as force or fraud].

 

 

Compounding (a Crime) - The offense of either agreeing not to prosecute a crime that one knows has been committed or agreeing to hamper the prosecution.

 

 

Compounding (Treason) -

 

 

Concealment - The act of refraining from disclosure, especially an act by which one prevents or hinders the discovery of something; a cover-up.  Concealment is an affirmative act intended or known to be likely to keep another from learning of a fact of which he would otherwise have learned.  Such affirmative action is always equivalent to a misrepresentation and has any effect that a misrepresentation would have.

 

 

Conjuration - A plot or compact made by persons who swear to each other to do something that will result in public harm; the offense of attempting a conference with evil spirits to discover some secret or effect some purpose; witchcraft; sorcery.

 

* The former is generally consolidated into "conspiracy" while the latter may not be applicable to a secular society.

 

 

Conspiracy - An agreement by two or more persons to commit an unlawful act, coupled with an intent to achieve the agreement's objective, and action or conduct that furthers the agreement.  Conspiracy is a separate offense from the crime that is the object of the conspiracy.  A conspiracy ends when the unlawful act has been committed or when the agreement has been abandoned.  A conspiracy does not automatically end if the conspiracy's object is defeated.

 

 

Contempt - An act that obstructs justice or attacks the integrity of the court.  A criminal contempt proceeding is punitive in nature.  The purpose of criminal-contempt proceedings is to punish repeated or aggravated failure to comply with a court order.  All the protections of criminal law and procedure apply, and the commitment must be for a definite period.

 

* The word "contempt" essentially means a lack of respect towards someone or something.  In a legal sense, it is a lack of respect towards the law, its officers, due process, the legal system as a whole, or the institutions that comprise it.

 

 

Contempt (of Court) - Conduct that defies the authority or dignity of a court or legislature.  Because such conduct intereferes with the administration of justice, it is punishable, usually by fine or imprisonment.

 

 

Contempt (of Sovereignty) - The minor diplomatic offense of interference in domestic affairs by a foreign representative, especially by making a public statement about an issue currently being debated in the legislature.

 

 

Corruption - Depracity, perversion, or taint; an impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle, especially the impairment of a public official's duties by bribery; the act of doing something with an intent to give some advantage inconsistent with official duty and the rights of others; a fiduciary's or official's use of a station or office to procure some benefit either personally or for someone else, contrary to the rights of others.

 

 

Corruption (of a Minor) -

 

 

Defamation - The act of harming the reputation of another by making a false statement to a third person; a false written or oral statement that damages another's reputation.

 

* Slander and libel are subcategories of defamation.

 

 

Eavesdropping - The act of secretly listening to the private conversation of others without their consent.

 

 

Embracery - The attempt to corrupt or wrongfully influence a judge or juror, especially by threats or bribery.

 

* Embracery is fairly archaic.  In modern thought, it is generally divided into bribery and obstruction of justice.  In specific instances, they are often known by their more common statutory names, such as witness tampering and juror tampering.

 

Escape - The act or instance of breaking free from confinement, retraint, or an obligation; an unlawful departure from legal custody without the use of force; a criminal offense commited by a peace officer who allows a prinsoner to depart unlawfully from legal custody.

 

 

Espionage - The practice of using spies to collect information about what another government or company is doing or plans to do.

 

 

Fabrication - To invent, forge, or devise falsely.  To fabricate a story is to create a plausible version of events that is advantageous to the person relating those events.  The term is softer than "lie."

 

* Typically thought of in relation to evidence or testimony, though the term is broader than this.

 

 

False Imprisonment (Misprision) - A restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent.  False imprisonment is a common-law misdemeanor and a tort.  It applies to private as well as governmental detention.  It is different from kidnapping in that asportation [carrying off] is not required.  If the imprisonment is secret, some jurisdictions treat it as kidnapping.

 

 

Forcible Detainer - The wrongful retention of possession of property by one originally in lawful possession, often with threats or actual use of violence.

 

 

Forcible Entry - The act or instance of violently and unlawfully taking possession of lands and tenements against the will of those in lawful possession; the act of entering land in another's possession by the use of force against another or by breaking into the premises.

 

 

Forgery - The act of fraudulently making a false document or altering a real one to be used as if genuine; the act of fraudulently altering, authenticating, issuing, or transferring a writing [or other item, such as a coin or credit card] without appropriate authorization.  Though forgery was a misdemeanor at common law, modern statutes typically make it a felony. 

 

 

Fraud - A knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment; a misrepresentation made recklessly without belief in its truth to induce another person to act; unconscionable dealing; especially in contract law, the unfair power arising out of the parties' relative positions and resulting in an unconscionable bargain.  The use of the term fraud has been wider and less precise in the chancery [a.k.a. equity] than in the common-law courts.  This followed necessarily from the remedies which they respectively administered.  Common law gave damages for a wrong, and was compelled to define with care the wrong which furnished a cause of action.  Equity refused specific performance of a contract, or set aside a transaction, or gave compensation where one party had acted unfairly by the other.  Thus "fraud" at common law is a false statement [whereas] fraud in equity has often been used as meaning unconscientious dealing.

 

* Fraud may well be a more foundational crime under common law and thus is worth studying in greater depth.  Since, at least in modern American jurisprudence, the courts of common law and equity have been essentially consolidated into a single court system, both definitions could be said to fall within a contemporary understanding of fraud at common law.  Black's Law Dictionary outlines many specific variations of fraud, such as fraud in inducement, contructive fraud, intrinsic and extrinsic fraud, etc. that would be too numerous to list here.

 

 

Incitement - The act or an instance of provoking, urging on, or stirring up; the act of persuading another to commit a crime.

 

* The difference between an inciter and an accessory before the fact is that an inciter is involved in a crime that is not yet complete; but if the crime is accomplished, they then become an accessory.

 

 

Kidnapping - The crime of seizing and taking away a person by force or fraud.  At early common law, kidnapping required a forcible asportation [carrying off] of the victim to another country.  Under modern statutes, the asportation need not be this extensive.

 

 

Kidnapping for Ransom - The offense of unlawfully seizing a person and then confining the person, usually in a secret place, while attempting to extort ransom.  This grave crime is sometimes made a capital offense.  In addition to the abductor, a person who acts as a go-between to collect the ransom is generally considered guilty of the crime.

 

 

Larceny - The unlawful taking and carrying away of someone else's personal property with the intent to deprive the possessor of it permanently.  Common-law larceny has been broaded by some statutes to include embezzlement and false pretenses, all three of which are often subsumed under the category of "theft."  The criminal offense of larceny or theft in the common law was intimately connected with the civil wrong of trespass.  Larceny, in order words, is merely a particular kind of trespass to goods which, by virtue of the trespasser's intent, is concerted into a crime.  Tresspass is a wrong, not to ownership but to possession, and theft, therefore, is not the violation of a person's right to ownership, but the infringement of his possession, accompanied with a particular criminal intent.

 

* Larceny is a form of theft, specifically against goods, though other forms of theft exist and the two terms are often used synonymously.  Purse-snatching, pickpocketting, and car-jacking are common examples of larceny.  Black's Law Dictionary outlines many specific variations of larceny, such as constructive larceny, grand larceny, larceny by a constructive trespass, larceny by trick, etc. that would be too numerous to list here.

 

 

Libel (Blasphemous) -

 

 

Libel (Defamatory) -

 

 

Libel (Obscene) -

 

 

Libel (Seditious) -

 

 

Maintainence -

 

Manslaughter - The unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought.

 

* Manslaughter is generally divided into two categories: voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter.  The former is an act of murder reduced to manslaughter because of extenuating circumstances, such as adequate provocation (arousing the "heat of passion") or diminished capacity.  The latter is a catch-all term and refers to any homicide in which there is no intention to kill or do grievous bodily harm, but that is committed with criminal negligence or during the commission of a crime not included in the felony-murder rule.

 

 

Mayhem - The crime of maliciously injuring a person's body, especially to impair or destroy the victim's capacity for self-defense; violent destruction; rowdy confusion or disruption.

 

* Though a common law offense, the first definition is generally treated as a form of battery under modern statutes.  This is largely a semantic difference and should not be taken to mean that it is any less of an crime mala in se.

 

 

Misconduct - A dereliction of duty; unlawful or improper behavior; [an attorney's] dishonesty or attempt to persuade a court or jury by using deceptive or reprehensible methods.

 

 

Misconduct (in Public Office) - A public officer's corrupt violation of assigned duties by malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance.

 

 

Murder - The killing of a human being with malice aforethought.  At common law, the crime of murder was not subdivided, but many state statutes have adopted the degree structure.  [First-degree murder is] murder that is willful, deliberate, or premeditated, or that is committed during the course of another dangerous felony.  All murder perpretated by poisoning or by lying in wait is considered first-degree murder.  All types of murder not involving willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing are usually considered second-degree murder.  [Third-degree murder is] a wrong that did not constitute murder at common law.  Only a few states have added to their murder statutes a third degree of murder.  Manslaughter is not a degree of the crime of murder, but instead is a disctinct crime.

 

* Murder and manslaughter are often confused with homicide, though these terms are not the same.  Homicide is the killing of a human being by another human being, whether or not such killing was deliberate.  All murders and manslaughters are homicides, but not all homicides are necessarily murders or manslaughters.  The key difference is whether or not the killing was justifiable.  For instance, killing out of self-defense or a defense of necessity is a homicide, but it is not necessarily a crime, as such killings would generally be considered justifiable.  Murder may well be one of the most heinous crime under common law and thus is worth studying in greater depth.  Black's Law Dictionary outlines many specific variations of murder, such as mass murder, serial murder, murder by torture, depraved-heart murder, etc. that would be too numerous to list here.

 

 

Negligence - The failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation; any conduct that falls below the legal standard established to protect others against unreasonable risk of harm, except for conduct that is intentionally, wantonly, or willfully disregardful of others' rights.

 

* Negligence is generally characterized as an unintended injury that results from someone's actions; and although the motivations for such actions are diverse, the key element in all cases is whether such action was reasonable given the circumstances and the defendent's knowledge and access to knowledge that could have and should have informed him to act differently.  Black's Law Dictionary outlines many specific variations of negligence, such as contributory negligence, gross negligence, culpable negligence, etc. that would be too numerous to list here.

 

 

Nuisance - A condition, activity, or situation (such as a loud noise or foul odor) that intereferes with the use or enjoyment of property, especially a nontransitory condition or persistent activity that either injures the physical condition of adjacent land or intereferes with its use or with the enjoyment of easements on the land or of public highways.  Liability might or might not arise from the condition or situation.  A nuisance may be merely a right thing in the wrong place, like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.  The general distinction between a nuisance and a trespass is that the trespass flows from a physical invasion and the nuisance does not.

 

* Nuisance is one of the broadest, most flexible areas of law and is often a catch-all for injuries not formerly recognized in law (such as environmental damages before ecology became a household term).  Nuisance is complex and often quite litigious, owing to the general misunderstanding that mere annoyance does not necessarily produce an injury or grant a claim of right.  One common example is a dog barking in the middle of the day in a suburban neighborhood where the keeping of dogs is common.  This would not be considered a nuisance as it is not unreasonably out of place, even if the barking might be unpleasant to anyone who hears it.  Similarly, the transient nature of an annoyance - such as the loud noise of a car passing through a town one time  - might not be sufficient to warrant action on the part of a court as such action might be unreasonable or simply impossible to enforce.

 

 

Nuisance (Public) - An unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public, such as a condition dangerous to health, offensive to community moral standards, or unlawfully obstructing the public in the free use of public property.  Such a nuisance may lead to a civil injunction or criminal prosection.

 

* Public nuisance is often synonymous with breach of peace, though, as its name suggests, breach of peace generally connotes a more violent action than does public nuisance.

 

 

Obscenity -

 

 

Obstructing Justice -

 

 

Outraging Public Decency -

 

 

Perjury / False Witness -

 

 

Permitting Escape -

 

 

Public Mischief -

Rape - Unlawful sexual activity (especially intercourse) with a person without consent and usually by force or threat of injury.  Rape includes unlawful sexual intercourse without consent after the perpetrator has substantially impaired his victim by administering, without the victim's knowledge or consent, drugs or intoxicants for the purpose of preventing resistance.  It also includes unlawful sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious.  Marital status is now usually irrelevant, and sometimes so is the victim's gender.

 

* As regards rape, age is generally only a factor under statute, though whether there exists an age of consent at common law below which it is inherently immoral to have sex with someone - and what that age is - is a matter of debate.  For instance, one can consider consentual sex with a thirty-year old to be lawful, whereas sex with a five-year old, even if consentual (as far as a five-year old could be said to consent to such actions) as unlawful mala in se; but where the dividing line between them exists is at best a gray area.  Likewise, because of the close relationship between religion and law (among other things), questions of the inherent legal and moral nature of plurality and sexuality may arise; though as a general rule, it may be said that free and consenting adults should be allowed to peacefully engage in whatever actions they please.

 

 

Recklessness - Conduct whereby the actor does not desire harmful consequence but nonetheless foresees the possibility and consciously takes the risk.  Recklessness involves a greater degree of fault than negligence but a lesser degree of fault than intentional wrongdoing.  The ordinary meaning of the word is a high degree of carelessness.  It is the doing of something which in fact involves a grave risk to others, whether the doer realises it or not.  The test is therefore objective and not subjective.

 

 

Refusal to Execute Public Office -

 

 

Rescue - The forcible and unlawful freeing of a person from arrest or imprisonment; or the forcible retaking by the owner of goods that have been lawfully distrained.  A rescue signifies a forcible setting at liberty, against law, of a person [or property] duly arrested.  It is necessary, that the rescuer should have knowledge that [the person or property] he sets at liberty has been apprehended for a criminal offense, if [he / it] be in the custody of a private person; but if [he / it] be under the care of an officer, then he is to take notice of it at his peril.

 

* Ideally, if the laws of a society are just and due process is followed, then only those people who commit mala in se crimes  - or at least those of whom it is reasonable to suspect have committed them - will be arrested or detained.  Likewise, under such ideal conditions, only that property wrongfully held will ever need be distrained.  Thus, at least in a perfect world, there could be no lawful or moral motivation to free a captive person or to liberate property held by the police, and so all such attempts would only be made by those seeking to aid criminals and interfere with the administration of justice.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case in the real world and sometimes innocents get arrested and have their property wrongfully taken by the very officers sworn to defend them against thieves and kidnappers.  Still, it may be a wise practice to operate on the presumption that officers of the law are acting in accordance with their just and lawful duties unless and until such time as it can be proven otherwise; and even then, there are often many options before resorting to rescue.

 

 

Riot -

 

Robbery - The illegal taking of property from the person of another, or in the person's presence, by violence or intimidation; aggravated larceny.  Robbery is usually a felony, but some jurisdictions classify some robberies as high misdemeanors.  Under some of the new penal codes, robbery does not require an actual taking of property.  If force or intimidation is used in the attempt to commit theft, this is sufficient.

 

 

Rout -


Sedition -

 

 

Theft - The felonious taking and removing of another's personal property with the intent of depriving the true owner of it; larceny.  Broadly, any act or instance of stealing, including larceny, burglary, embezzlement, and false pretenses.  Many modern penal codes have consolidated such property offenses under the name "theft."

 

* "Theft" is essentially a catch-all term for various forms of unlawful taking of property and is generally synonymous with larceny, though the latter is historically a more narrowly defined common law crime.  Black's Law Dictionary outlines many specific variations of theft, such as petty theft, theft by deception, theft by extortion, theft by false pretext, etc. that would be too numerous to list here.

 

 

Treason (High) -

 

 

Treason (Petty) -

 

 

Trespass - An unlawful act committed against the person or property of another; especially wrongful entry on another's real property.  In its true legal sense, the term means any direct and forcible injury to person, land, or chattels.

 

* Typically, people only regard trespass in the sense of unlawful entry onto a person's land - and more specifically what is now called "criminal trespass" wherein property has been clearly marked (as with a sign) or an officer has ordered a person off of said property and the person remains - though this is but one form of trespass.  In some versions of the Bible, the term "trespass" is used to indicate any sort of wrong, and it was likely written that way because such was the common usage of the term at the time.  "Trespass on the case" was an action at common law that was the precursor to a variety of modern-day tort claims, such as negligence, nuisance, and business torts.


Unlawful assembly - A meeting of three or more persons who intend either to commit a violent crime or to carry out some act, lawful or unlawful, that will constitute a breach of the peace.  In order that the assembly may be "unlawful," it is not necessary that the object of the meeting should itself be illegal.  The test is, not the illegality of the purpose for which the persons are met, but the danger to the peace which their meeting involves.  The mere fact, therefore, that the purpose is unlawful is not enough; it must be shown that it involves reasonable apprehension of a breach of the peace.  Thus, if a number of persons meet to plan a fraud, they may be guilty of a conspiracy, but their meeting is not an unlawful assembly.  An unlawful assembly differs from a riot in that if the parties assemble in a tumultuous manner, and actually execute their purpose with violence, it is a riot; but if they merely meet on a purpose, which, if executed, would make them rioters, and, having done nothing wrong, they separate without carrying their purpose into effect, it is an unlawful assembly.

 

 

Vandalism - Willful or ignorant destruction of public or private property, especially of artistic, architectural, or literary treasures.