ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses few concepts that cross all types of criminal cases. The first two of these, mens rea and actus reus, combine to make the frequently misunderstood third concept, corpus delicti. The evil mind, or mens rea in Latin, is a necessary part of any criminal prosecution. The modern usage of mens rea, however, merely implies that the person intended to commit the act that he or she in fact committed. Corpus delicti translates directly to “body of the crime,” and is a technical legal term that means that before a crime can be established and a person convicted of it, both the mens rea and the actus reus, the evil mind and the evil deed, must be established. In other words, the corpus delicti in a criminal case is nothing more than the basis of the proof that the prosecution must make in order to get a conviction of the defendant.
