Criminal Law and Procedure on the bar exam

Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure are tested together but reward different study habits. Substantive criminal law is element-driven and rewards precise memorisation; criminal procedure is constitutional and rewards frameworks.

The exam generally applies common law definitions unless a question signals a modern or Model Penal Code approach, so knowing where those two diverge is worth more than knowing either one alone.

• Homicide questions require the full ladder: intent-to-kill murder, felony murder, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
• Inchoate crimes and accomplice liability are consistently tested and consistently missed.
• Fourth Amendment questions turn on whether a search occurred, then on warrant requirements and exceptions.
• Miranda and right-to-counsel problems require identifying custody, interrogation, and the stage of proceedings.

• Memorise crime elements as lists, then practise applying them to fact patterns that change one element at a time.
• Study the search-and-seizure exceptions as a decision tree rather than a list.
• Separate your notes on substantive crimes from your notes on procedure; mixing them is the most common source of confusion.

194 pages across 23 chapters, organised in the order the law applies:

• Actus reus, mens rea hierarchies, and causation
• Homicide, manslaughter, and felony murder
• Theft, burglary, arson, and property crimes
• Inchoate crimes and accomplice liability
• Justification and excuse defenses
• Fourth Amendment searches, warrants, and exceptions
• Miranda, confessions, and right to counsel
• Double jeopardy, appeals, and habeas corpus

• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Contracts and Sales (UCC Article 2)
• Evidence
• Real Property
• Torts
• Business Associations
• Multistate Performance Test (MPT)
• Professional Responsibility (MPRE)