Legal Question in Criminal Law in American Samoa

Re: criminal case

The terms are actually cases that were tried in England. The issue in each was did the defendant have the appropriate Mens Rea to be found guilty of the crime charged. Mens rea means a guilty state of mind.

"Cunningham Recklessness" asks:

If the defendant knows the risk, is willing to take it and takes it deliberately then The question that must be asked is "was the risk in the defendant's mind at the time the crime was committed?"

Under the "Caldwell Recklessness rule",

the issue goes to whether

the risk was obvious to the reasonable man, in that any reasonable man would have realized it if he had thought about it.

A person is reckless in the new wider sense when he performs an act which creates an obvious risk, and, when performing the act, he has either given no thought to the possibility of such a risk arising or he recognized that some risk existed, but went on to take it.

Now how's that for a lawyer from "the colonies?" lol.