Business Law 12th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller ,Frank Cross

Exercise 14

Edward Hanousek worked for Pacific Arctic Railway and Navigation Company (P A) as a roadmaster of the White Pass Yukon Railroad in Alaska. Hanousek was responsible "for every detail of the safe and efficient maintenance and construction of track, structures and marine facilities of the entire railroad," including special projects. One project was a rock quarry, known as "6-mile," above the Skagway River. Next to the quarry, and just beneath the surface, ran a high-pressure oil pipeline owned by Pacific Arctic Pipeline, Inc., P A's sister company. When the quarry's backhoe operator punctured the pipeline, an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 gallons of oil were discharged into the river. Hanousek was charged with negligently discharging a harmful quantity of oil into a navigable water of the United States in violation of the criminal provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Using the information presented in the chapter, answer the following questions.
Did Hanousek have the required mental state (mens rea) to be convicted of a crime? Why or why not?
DEBATE THIS : One legal observer claimed that all Americans may be breaking the law regularly without knowing it because of overcriminalization, particularly by the federal government. Should Congress rescind many of the more than four thousand federal crimes now on the books?