According to recent D.C. Court of Appeals decision, “possesses” stolen property refers to the continuing act of being in possession of the property, not the act of taking possession at the time of acquisition.
It is extremely unlikely that anyone but the most habitual offender will serve jail time for shoplifting in D.C. This is particularly true during the Covid-19 pandemic.
People who are arrested for shoplifting in Washington, D.C. are often surprised to find themselves charged with “theft II” when they show up for court.
In law school, we learned the difference between a subjective standard in defining a mental state and an objective one. The subjective standard focuses on the defendant’s actual state of mind. With the objective standard, it is how a reasonable person in the same position would feel. Most criminal statutes seem to use the objective standard. This simplifies things for …