§ 2-12 Common Law Robbery/strong Arm Robbery

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Criminal (SCBar) (2023 Ed.)

§ 2-12 Common Law Robbery/Strong Arm Robbery

Robbery is defined as the unlawful taking of money, goods or other personal property of any value from the person of another or in his presence by violence or by putting such person in fear. Robbery is larceny from the person or immediate presence of another by violence, intimidation, or by putting such person in fear. A thing is in the presence of a person, in respect to robbery, which is so within his reach, inspection, observation or control, that he could, if not overcome by violence or prevented by fear, retain his possession of it. Robbery is basically larceny compounded or aggravated by intimidation or force used in the taking of property from the person or in the presence of another.

Larceny is the felonious taking and carrying away of the goods of another against the owner's will or without his consent with the intent to appropriate them to one's own use and to permanently deprive the owner of possession of his property. There are five elements the State must establish beyond a reasonable doubt to prove the crime of robbery. The elements of larceny are:

(1) a taking;

(2) the act of carrying the property away—this is called asportation in the law—asportation is the act of carrying away;

(3) of the personal property of another;

(4) without the consent or against the will of the owner;

AND

(5) with the intent to steal.

The asportation of stolen property is an indispensable element of larceny and can be established by the slightest removal of the property with felonious intent. The defendant must intend to permanently deprive the owner of possession by converting the property to his own use.

In addition to the elements of larceny, the crime of robbery requires two additional elements. These are:

(1) the property must be taken from the person or immediate presence of another;

AND

(2) the taking must be accomplished by violence, intimidation, or by putting the person in fear.

This violence must be actual personal violence or the threat of it. Further, the violence or intimidation must either precede or be contemporaneous with the taking.

Generally, the element of force in the offense of robbery may be actual or constructive. Actual force implies physical violence. Constructive force includes all demonstrations of force, menaces, and other means by which the person robbed is put in fear sufficient to overcome the free exercise of the person's will or prevent resistance to the taking. No matter how slight the cause creating the fear is or by what other circumstances the taking is accomplished, if the transaction is accompanied by circumstances of terror, such as threatening by word or gesture, as in common experience are likely to create an apprehension of fear and induce a person to give up the property, the victim is...