aw without defining the elements of the crime, however, the common law controls.
An underlying principle of criminal law is that all persons subject to the law are entitled to be informed as to what the state commands or forbids, and that no one should be required to speculate on the meaning of a criminal law statute. No person can be held criminally responsible for conduct he or she cannot not reasonably understand to be proscribed. This standard of certainty of understanding is higher for criminal law than for civil law.
Under modern rules of law, a criminal act is classified as a felony or a misdemeanor in most instances on the basis of the punishment provided by the statute defining the crime, as opposed to the nature or character of the wrongful act. A common distinction within the context is that crimes punishable by death or incarceration in a state prison or penitentiary are felonies whereas all other crimes are misdemeanors.
A basic postulate of criminal law is that a free agent must be confronted with a choice between doing right and doing wrong, and must freely choose to do wrong. Thus, mental capacity to commit a crime is an essential requisite to criminal responsibility. Defining mental competency for criminal responsibility is
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