1) After living together for several months, Defendant and Victor were engaged to be married. Two days before the wedding date, Defendant told Victor that she could not go through with the ceremony. In a rage, he attacked her, beating her badly. When he grabbed a kitchen knife and started to approach Defendant again, she shot him in the abdomen. Stunned, she got up, saw that he was still alive but unconscious, and left the apartment. Victor died several hours later without regaining consciousness. On the assumption that prompt medical attention would have saved Victor's life, the prosecutor has charged Defendant with negligent homicide for failing to render aid to Victor. Defendant has moved to dismiss the charges on the grounds that she had no duty to render aid. Discuss how the court should rule on that motion.

2) The state has charged Defendant with kidnapping. The facts that gave rise to this charge are as follows: Defendant was a member of a neighborhood watch group. He and other members of the group became concerned about a sex offender living nearby. He consulted an attorney, who told him that Defendant could confine the sex offender and question him if Defendant was suspicious of the sex offender's activities. That advice was contrary to the law, which did not allow such a detention of another person.

Discuss whether the facts are relevant to whether Defendant was guilty of the following offense:

'A person who willfully: seizes, confines, or kidnaps another, with intent to cause him, without authority of law, to be imprisoned within this state, or in any way held to service or kept or detained, against his will * * * is guilty of kidnapping.'.

Also, discuss whether your answer would change if this state has adopted the Model Penal Code.

To determine if Defendant can raise a mistake of law defense, the court must determine whether the mens rea term applies to the words "without authority of law" in the statute that Defendant is charged with violating.