...Criminal Defense Case Analysis Paper Nikisha Rayford CJA/354 February 10, 2014 Gary Weil Criminal Defense Case Analysis Criminal Defenses One of the greatest rights afforded to the America people is the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. It is the job of the prosecutor to prove to the people, to the jury, and to the court that the accused is guilty of a crime. If the prosecutor has a valid case, the accused, either on his or her own or accompanied by a skilled attorney, can present various defenses to argue why they acted in the manner they did. According to Criminal Law Today, “A defense consists of evidence and arguments offered by a defendant and his or her attorneys to show why that person should not be held liable for a criminal charge” (Schmalleger 2010, pg. 114). This paper will discuss various forms of criminal defenses and how they are used in court. Justification Defense The courts usually require that the prosecutor prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of a crime, the defense can take an offensive role in their trial by taking an affirmative defense. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the prosecuting attorney to attempt to prove the defendant’s guilt, the defendant can fight back with defenses. The following are types of affirmative defenses: Necessity The defense of necessity claims that the defendant believes it was necessary to commit...
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...Criminal Defense Case Analysis Paper Brandy Alston University of Phoenix Criminal Law CJA/343 Professor Joseph Wade March 1, 2012 Criminal Defense Case Analysis Paper Many individuals are aware of the process that lawyer go through to convict an individual. The prosecution has to prove a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of a crime, the accused does not have to present evidence for the innocent. The Fifth Amendment is the United States constitution states a defendant is not compelled to under oath criminate themselves, however in most cases the defendant want the chance to prove their innocent in court by having a defense. Criminal law is define as a code, rules, or statute that prohibits the conducts this is prohibit in region or state, federal government. However, when laws results in violations where the individual charged with the crime and haul off to jail. Although once the individual charged, they have the right to defend themselves in court with legal representation. This paper aims to examine and identify the different kind of criminal defense used in a criminal trial. This paper will discuss the two common defenses used in our justice system legal I did it but and factual I did not do it, the defense I did not do it means presumption of innocent and the defense I did it but means guilty with reason. Factual defense is the legal defense offers two group defense excuse and justification that has six categories for them. In justification...
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...People who are charged with offences in the United States will very often attempt to use one of the criminal defences to make them not criminally responsible or less criminally responsible for the charge. Some of the Criminal defences used are the insanity defense, claiming that the offender was mentally insane, the necessity defence, claiming that the crime was committed to prevent a more serious crime from occurring, and being underage. Each of these three criminal defences are very effective ways of reducing or eliminating criminal responsibility from the offender. A person's age is a large variable in determining whether or not the person is criminally responsible. and child under the age of seven years old is most likely not going to...
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...Necessity is a civil defence while duress and duress of circumstances are criminal defences. Therefore in order to fully answer this question we must explore the defences of duress, duress of circumstances for criminal law and the defence of necessity for civil law and determine to what extent they provide a defence. In the case of Valderrama-Vega (1985) the D smuggled cocaine due to threats on his life and threats to disclose his homosexuality. The Court of Appeal quashed his conviction because the Jury did not look at the cumulative effects of all the threats that were made to him. A two stage test was introduced in the case of Graham (1982) when the D helped kill his wife because he was threatened by his homosexual lover. Was the D compelled to act as he did because he reasonably believed he had a good cause to fear serious injury or death? If so, would a sober person of reasonable firmness, sharing the characteristics of the accused have responded in the same way? As we can see by these two cases, the Courts are prepared to accept the defence when the D life is being threatened. In the case of Matrin (DP) (2000) the D suffered from a schizoid-affective state which would make him see things as threatening and believe the threats would be carried out, therefore the Court held that the correct test should have been whether, in view of the D condition, he may have reasonably feared for his own or mothers safety. So now we can see that the Court includes danger to oneself and...
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...NECESSITY LAW THE GENERAL RULE Necessity arises where a defendant is forced by circumstances to transgress the criminal law. The generally accepted position is that necessity cannot be a defence to a criminal charge. The leading case is: * R v Dudley and Stephens (1884) 14 QBD 273. The defendants and a cabin boy were cast adrift in a boat following a shipwreck. The defendants agreed that as the cabin boy was already weak, and looked likely to die soon, they would kill him and eat him for as long as they could, in the hope that they would be rescued before they themselves died of starvation. A few days after the killing they were rescued and then charged with murder. The judges of the Queen's Bench Division held that the defendants were guilty of murder in killing the cabin boy and stated that their obvious necessity was no defence. The defendants were sentenced to death, but this was commuted to six months' imprisonment. * Lord Coleridge CJ, having referred to Sir Matthew Hale's assertion (The History of the Pleas of the Crown, 1736) that a man was not to be acquitted of theft of food on account of his extreme hunger, doubted that the defence of necessity could ever be extended to a defendant who killed another to save his own life. After referring to the Christian aspect of actually giving up one's own life to save others, rather than taking another's life to save one's own, he referred to the impossibility of choosing between the value of one person's life and another's: ...
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...Case Review Worksheet CJ/354 Week Two Worksheet Part I: Case Review Review the cases below by going to the “Detailed Contents” section of the Contemporary Criminal Law textbook. After reviewing the case, select the defense that was represented in the case from the following list: necessity | self-defense | defense of others | defense of home and property | resisting unlawful arrest | consent | duress | intoxication | mistake | age or infancy defense | entrapment | syndrome-based defenses | insanity defense | | | 1. Case 1: State v. Dejarlais State v. Dejarlais section in Ch. 8 of Contemporary Criminal Law Defense used: Consent 2. Case 2: Lopez v. State Lopez v. State section in Ch. 9 of Contemporary Criminal Law Defense used: Insanity Defense 3. Case 3: People v. Ceballos People v. Ceballos section in Ch. 8 of Contemporary Criminal Law Defense used: Defense of Home and Property, Necessity 4. Case 3: Brazil v. State Brazill v. State section in Ch. 9 of Contemporary Criminal Law Defense used: Age or Infancy Defense Part II: Short Answer Answer, in a minimum of 50 words, each of the following questions: 1. What is the adversarial system? The adversarial system, also known as adversary system. Many also refer to it as the legal system. They develop and present any arguments, gather, and submit any evidence they may have, as well as questioning any witnesses. Both parties are represented by attorneys...
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...Criminal Defenses One of the greatest rights afforded to the America people is the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. It is the job of the prosecutor to prove to the people, to the jury, and to the court that the accused is guilty of a crime. If the prosecutor has a valid case, the accused, either on his or her own or accompanied by a skilled attorney, can present various defenses to argue why they acted in the manner they did. Schmalleger (2010, pg. 114) states, “A defense consists of evidence and arguments offered by a defendant and his or her attorney(s) to show why that person should not be held liable for a criminal charge”. This paper will discuss various forms of criminal defenses and how they are used in court. Justification Defense While the courts usually require the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defense is guilty of a crime, the defense can take an offensive role in their trial by taking an affirmative defense. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the prosecuting attorney to attempt to prove the defendants guilt, the defendant can “fight” back with defenses. The following are types of affirmative defenses: Necessity The defense of necessity claims that the defendant believes it was necessary to commit the criminal act in order to prevent or avoid great harm (Schmallege, 2010 pg 116). An interesting case that was upheld as a good defense of necessity was people vs. lovercamp (1974) where inmate...
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...abolishing usage of firearms entirely (Bennett). They believe a ban of firearms will prevent criminals from obtaining them. This can not be further from the truth, however. Trevor Burrus summarizes this claim excellently when he says, “I have sympathy for the appeal of this ideal, but such a daydream cannot guide our public policy." In an ideal world, ridding the country of guns will prevent criminals from obtaining them. The harsh reality of the situation, though, is that ridding the United States guns will have the opposite effect. In the article, “There Is a Problem with Politics, Not Guns, in the United States,” Michael Schaus brings attention to the fact that Chicago, although using some of the strictest gun control policies in the nation, possesses one of the largest crime rates as well. Enacting stricter gun laws does not necessarily mean criminals will be unable to obtain guns. Simply putting a law into place will not prevent a criminal from breaking it. Criminals earn the title for a reason; they commit crimes. They will not follow the law on firearms and will obtain guns, even with a ban on them. In the opinion piece, “There Is No Easy Solution To Preventing Gun Violence,” John Epstein states, "To take the extreme case, suppose that a gun control law can eliminate 99.9 percent of the guns now in circulation and that all of the remaining 200,000 guns are in the hands of hardened criminals. We can confidently predict that crime will go up." His argument states that a ban will...
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...Criminal Defenses and Criminal Punishments Evelyn Diaz Strayer University LEG 320 Criminal Law Prof. Stratis-Malak May 23rd, 2014 Criminal Defenses and Criminal Punishments When determining if the use of force is lawful or justified by the court, various key points involved would have to be evaluated before deciding whether or not the use of force was warranted. Depending on the state statue, for example, if someone uses a Self-Defense and the Defense of Others approach in a court of law, the court would need to take into account three important key points that need to be involved. One being, if the act done by the other person was unlawful, if so, then it would be considered justified; secondly, if the act or force was immediate and necessary to defend yourself; and lastly, if the circumstances were reasonable enough to warrant the amount of force applied in the act. When determining the reasonableness of force used, one would have to take into account the relationship of those involved along with their size and age, and whether the assault was aggressive, and the type of weapon used (Gardner, & Anderson, 2012). Another approach to take when determining lawfulness of the use of force would be, the use of Deadly Force in a Self-Defense or the Defense of Others, would be the Stand Your Ground Law, a Florida Statute, that if and when a person feels that they are in fear of their life, and believe that they are in danger, then they have the right to defend themselves...
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...Criminal Profiling: The Public Face of Forensic Psychology Jason Evans Brandman University Table of contents Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Literature review 4 Discussion 7 Personal interest in the topic 10 References 11 Abstract The utilisation of psychological concepts has been extended in many fields in seeking to enhance understanding of human behaviours. Forensic psychology is one of the various psychological filed which have developed out of the necessity to apply psychology in different fields. This article discusses the element of forensic psychology in relation to the various issues arising within the field. A discussion of the various issues highlights ethical aspects as the main causes of many challenges faced in the field. The complexity of the setting under which the psychological practice is conducted makes the topic become one of the interesting psychological segments that can be studied. Introduction Forensic psychology can be defined as the utilisation of psychological concepts, skills, and insights in seeking to enhance the understanding of various elements of legal and criminal justice systems. Within the context of the subject various psychological and legal aspects become combined in seeking to understand the functioning and operations of criminal systems (Davies & Beech, 2012). This approach to criminal justice involves various activities involved in the delivery of justice, ranging from the enforcement to treatment of suspects...
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...American citizens own a firearm of some sort, which leads to a heavy debate over whether new laws should be put into place to control firearms in attempt to lower the gun related crime rates. In theory, this sounds like a flawless plan, remove the gun then the problem is solved. However this is not the case, each year up to 22,000 metric tons of Marijuana is smuggled across the U.S. borders because in the United States recreational Marijuana is illegal, who is to say that guns would not be next? Many families own firearms that are aimed to defend themselves, while it is true that a handgun can get the job done, it has its limits. A handgun can only fire one round at a time while having 6 to 15 bullets per standard clip. In a situation of robbery or attempted murder, you will not necessarily think as clear as normal, your aim may diminish, and you’ll probably miss your target. Think about it, would you want a robber or serial killer in your home, firing at the same rate as you or would you want to have the advantage on them? Gang related crimes are usually concentrated in urban cities, in these neighborhoods, firearms are a necessity to safety. In some cases, gang members attack in groups. While they are doing so, firearms with multiple round shots and a faster rate of fire might be needed to protect you and your family from death or injury. The reality is that some guns have become a necessity to protecting one's safety, this is due to the fact that some people feel safer and more...
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...University of Warwick School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-05 LEGAL FORM AND MORAL JUDGMENT: THE PROBLEM OF EUTHANASIA Alan Norrie Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1577163 ABSTRACT In this paper, I want to consider the way in which categories of legal responsibility in the criminal law’s general part mediate and finesse broader moral issues around questions of euthanasia. I INTRODUCTION Euthanasia and its close cousin assisted dying represent extremely problematic areas for the criminal law, as the recent guidelines issue around assisted suicide testifies. The effect of these guidelines is to make no official change in the law, yet to make it clear as a matter of practice that where the law on its face has been broken, there will be no prosecution where the defendant was motivated by good moral reasons. On a legal realist vision of law, the law has changed, but on a positivistic reading it has not. What we have in fact is a rather complex and potentially troublesome juxtaposition of legal rule and administrative discretion. This balances strong social, political and moral claims in a society where there is no consensus as to the rights and wrongs of helping someone to die. In this context, the legal realist can say ‘I told you so’, and the legal positivist can cluck disapprovingly, but both miss the point, which is that the law’s messy mixing of messages in a pragmatic compromise reflects the moral impasse in a way that...
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...data the best background check should be the criminal background check as well as a credit check. I feel this company needs to know if their employees have a criminal history and by looking at the credit history you can get an understanding of their financial status and their character, this should give you a picture of the employee worthiness, do they need money, are they in debt, would they sell data to make ends, although this background check would only give you a snapshot of the person you would have to make the decision to hire them or not once you have obtained the information. There are some issues related to criminal and credit background checks. For credit checks the Fair credit reporting act governs this type of background check. When you decide you want to do the credit checks on a person you must give them notice in writing, written authorization must be obtained for the person first. When you obtain the information before taking any action you must give the applicant a copy of the report and a copy of his or her rights. In some states there are state and local laws that govern theses types of background checks so to ensure you company is in compliance you need to review the laws that govern them. Criminal background checks are governed by FCRA, state and local laws as well as EEOC. The EEOC has taken the stance that criminal convictions should not be used in the company’s hiring decision unless it is a business necessity however with this company’s sensitive data...
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...Law Case Analysis According to the law case EEOC v. FREEMAN, the EEOC filed a law suit against Freeman and alleged the company’s hiring policy which includes criminal background and credit history checks, has a disparate impact on African-American, Hispanic, and male applicants. And the material fact of this case is whether Defendant’s hiring criteria of conducting criminal background and credit history checks is consistent with business necessity. Since the Defendant was charged by the EEOC with unlawful discrimination in this case, the source of law is the Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964. “Title VII prohibits discrimination in hiring, firing, trainings, promotion, discipline, or other workplace decisions on the basis of an employee or applicant’s race, color, gender, national origin, or religion” (Bennett- Alexander & Hartman, 2011). As a federal law enforcement agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has obligations to investigate violations of Title VII and enforce laws against discrimination in workplace. In addition to the EEOC’s unique role, Title VII requires federal district courts to take the Title VII discrimination case for judicial review only after the EEOC has first disposed of the claim (Bennett- Alexander & Hartman, 2011). And according to the case, since the EEOC accepted applicant Katrina Vaughn’s discrimination complaint about Defendant’s violation of Title VII by rejecting hiring her based on her credit history information, the...
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...not simply separated records or distorted variations of individual experiences, however rather set up and relentless illustrations of law approval conduct. It may be that these prevents don't spring from bias regarding individual officers, or even from the official techniques of the police divisions for which they work. Things being what they are, the estimations leave little instability that, whatever the wellspring of this conduct by police, it has a disparate and corrupting influence on blacks....
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