Mens Rea Reform Act of 2015 2015-11-18 Introduced in Senate Mens Rea Reform Act of 2015

This bill amends the federal criminal code to establish a default intent (state of mind)standardfor a federal criminal offense, unless the provision of law that defines such offense specifically provides otherwise.

A federal criminal offense conviction under the default standard requires proof beyond a reasonable doubtthat a defendant acted intentionally and willfully with respect to each element of the offense.If a state of mind is not specified for an element of the offense, it must be shown that the defendant acted willfully. A person who acts "willfully" does so with the knowledge that the conduct is unlawful. The bill sets forth certain exceptions where the default standard shall not apply.

Additionally, the bill requires that when a provision of lawidentifies an intentstandard but does not specify which elements of the offense the standard applies to, the identified standard must apply to all elements of the offense.

]]> text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.