Voorhees v. United States
Petition for certiorari denied on March 30, 2020
Issue: Whether the principle that criminal
statutes must contain a mens rea element, with the
exception of strict liability offenses, applies to criminal prosecutions under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice, when the
underlying statute at issue, 10 U.S.C. § 933, contains no mens rea element and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces held below that only a general intent is required using an objective, versus subjective, standard, i.e., negligence, and thus that no mens rea element need be instructed to the jury, even when the “conduct” alleged to be criminal is facially noncriminal.