2.06 Knowingly

• Currency: 2023
• Year: 2023
• Section: Chapter 2 Defining The Crime And Related Matters

2.06 KNOWINGLY

(No General Instruction Recommended.)

Committee Commentary 2.06

(current through March 1, 2023)

The Committee recommends that the district court give no general instruction defining

the term “knowingly” and that instead, the district court define the mental state required for the

particular crime charged as part of the court's instructions defining the elements of the offense.

Chapters 10 et seq. include elements instructions which identify specific mental states for those

crimes.

The meaning of the term "knowingly" varies depending on the particular statute in which

it appears. For example, in Liparota v. United States, 471 U.S. 419, 433-34 (1985), the Supreme

Court held that to convict a defendant of food stamp fraud, the government must prove that the

defendant knew that his acquisition or possession of food stamps was unauthorized by statute or

regulations. In contrast, in United States v. Elshenawy, 801 F.2d 856, 857-59 (6th Cir. 1986),

the Sixth Circuit held that to convict a defendant of possessing contraband cigarettes, the

government need only prove that the defendant knew the physical nature of what he possessed.

The government need not prove that the defendant also knew that the cigarettes in his possession

were required to be taxed, or that the required taxes had not been paid.

Because of these variations in meaning, the Committee does not recommend any general

instruction defining the term "knowingly." Instead, the Committee recommends that the district

court define the precise mental state required to convict as part of the court's instructions

defining the elements of the offense. See for example the Introduction to the Federal Judicial

Center Instructions ("[W]e have ... avoided the word 'knowingly,' a term that is a persistent

source of ambiguity in statutes as well as jury instructions [and] ... have tried our best to make it

clear what it is that a defendant must intend or know to be guilty of an offense.").