Daniel Matthew Matlock v. United States

This Court has consistently and repeatedly held that the term “knowingly” in a criminal statute must apply to all of the elements of the crime that make the defendant’s conduct criminal, i.e., the elements that evince a “vicious will” as distinguished from otherwise innocent conduct. The question presented is: Whether the term “knowingly” in 18 U.S.C. § 2242(1) (sexual abuse) applies only to “causing another person to engage in a sexual act” or whether it extends also to “threatening or placing that other person in fear.”