{"id":816,"date":"2012-05-05T16:59:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T20:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/?p=816"},"modified":"2012-05-05T16:59:55","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T20:59:55","slug":"intervening-causes-in-criminal-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/intervening-causes-in-criminal-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Intervening Causes in Criminal Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

An intervening cause occurs when there is some interruption between the defendant’s conduct and the ultimate harm or result. See People v. Acosta<\/em><\/a> for a great example.<\/p>\n

Here is how to conduct an analysis to determine if a defendant is still liable in the presence of one or more intervening causes:<\/p>\n

First, is the intervening cause dependent or independent on the defendant’s conduct? For example, the intervening cause is dependent if it would not have occurred without the defendant’s conduct (e.g. a security guard firing a pistol because the defendant is robbing a bank).<\/p>\n