Criminal Law-Actus Reus
Aside from intent, another essential element of most criminal violations is that of actus reus, meaning the guilty act. If a person merely forms the intent to kill someone, but never does anything to actually implement it, then he or she has not committed any crime. If, however, that person forms the intent, goes out and purchases the weapon, and enters into a conspiracy to use that weapon to kill someone, then he or she may be guilty of a crime. In order to constitute actus reus, the act must be voluntary.
These two critical elements of mens rea and actus reus must occur concurrently.
Example: If Mark intentionally shoots to kill you, but misses and later accidentally kills you, he is not guilty of murder. At the time that Mark committed the act (actus reus) of accidentally killing you, he no longer had the intent (mens rea) of actually killing you.
