Essays on Defendant

Plea/Verdict: Not guilty by reason of insanity/Guilty but insane (GBI)

Total Days in Jail: 248
Present Offences: The defendant has been found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, and possession of Schedule I drugs.
Penalty Range: O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1 (d), felony murder; punishable by death, by imprisonment for life without parole, or by imprisonment for life. O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21 (c), aggravated assault upon a peace officer while the peace officer is engaged in his or her official duties; punishable by imprisonment for not less than five nor more than 20 years. O.C.G.A. § 16-5-40 (b), kidnapping, victim received bodily injury; punishable by life imprisonment or by death. O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.1, kidnapping Continue reading...

Introduction

Negligence refers to the act of perfuming an activity that can not be done by any reasonable person or doing the reverse to cause pain to another person. This is definitely a violation of one’s right and hence a legal action should be taken for such a person (McDonald, B., 2007). As a branch of civil law called tort, a case may qualify to be regarded as negligence if an incident involves more than just careless Continue reading...

A. People v. Watson
B. 30 Cal. 3d 290, 637 P.2d 279, 179 Cal. Rptr. 43 (1981).
C. Decision &Year Decided
In the year 1981, the California Supreme Court rendered a verdict convicting the defendant of secondary murder on the conduct of causing a fatal accident as a result of reckless driving. The court found rationality in concluding that the defendant’s behavior was deliberate and unprovoked, and he consciously disregarded human life. However, it can be argued that the court failed to define exactly when the conduct of an intoxicated driver can be regarded as an implied malevolence. Continue reading...

Plea Bargaining in American Society

Introduction
Plea bargaining plays a very significant role in the American criminal justice system. It is estimated that approximately 90% of all criminal cases are settled by plea bargain rather than trial by a jury as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United State Constitution. Throughout this paper, I will discuss what a plea bargain is, benefits of plea bargains, disadvantages of plea bargains, the role of the victim in the plea bargaining process, and recent developments in plea bargaining.

What is Plea Bargaining?

In the American court system, a plea bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant in Continue reading...

Law

1a.) The four main components of a contract are: offer, acceptance, consideration and intention of legal consequences. The offer is considered complete if it states in definite terms of the agreement and it must be communicated to the offeree. The offer should not only include any estimation, manifestations of interest, requests for proposals or letters of intent. The offer is different from an invitation to treat such as advertisements and shop displays where the invitation to treat is inviting an offer to be made (Richards, 2009). In this given case, the offer was made through an advertisement in several Continue reading...

Plea/Verdict: Not guilty by reason of insanity/Guilty but insane

Present Offences: The defendant has been found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, and possession of Schedule I drugs.
Penalty Range: O.C.G.A. § 16-5-1 (d) states that, “A person convicted of the offense of murder shall be punished by death, by imprisonment for life without parole, or by imprisonment for life.”

Circumstances of Offenses

The defendant was found guilty of kidnapping Ms. Uma Opee and stabbing her 13 times until she bled to death, a felony murder. At the time of his arrest, the defendant was extremely agitated and irrational, and he assaulted the arresting officers, yelling, “I am God, let Continue reading...

In the 1957 film 12 Angry Men, a group of jurors is surprised to discover that one juror does not immediately wish to convict a young man accused of murdering his father. The lone dissenting juror pleads and argues with the other jurors over the course of their deliberations, using a variety of persuasive techniques to instill some sense of doubt about the guilt of the accused. As other jurors began to have their own doubts, they join in and provide both rational and emotional appeals to persuade the remaining jurors to change their minds. The interactions between the Continue reading...

- Courtroom observation and interviews
a. Names of the participants:

Presiding judge name: Thomas J. Qummin

Defendant: Gary Burk, charged for selling illegal drugs
Attorney for the defendant: Keeth Colemen
b. Date(s) and time(s) of observation(s); 04/18/2013; 02:30pm
c. Location of observation and type of jurisdiction; Location: Greeley, CO court.
d. Courtroom: 15; Case Number: 12CR2024;
e. Facts and activities observed
During today’s hearing, the courtroom was silent as the defendant or the accused walks into the court room together with his counsel Keeth Colemen. The state prosecutor arrived thereafter. After a few minutes, the presiding judge walks into his chair Continue reading...

Jimmy V Regina (2010)

- Facts of the Case
The defendant was charged of money laundering under section 400.41(1) of the Criminal Code Act of 1995 and under section 4AAA of the crimes Act of 1914. The defendant, on occasions numbering twenty seven between the dates 26th November 2003 to 11th February 2004, took a sum of cash to a bank and arranged that it be transferred to a bank account in Hong Kong. On all these occasions, the amount deposited to the bank was less than $ 10000, an act to deliberately keep the deposits below the threshold Continue reading...

In the Trayvon Martin’s case, George Zimmerman shot 17 year-old Martin, an African American high school student. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where the shooting took place and where Trayvon Martin was staying temporarily. The defendant, Zimmerman, was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. According to the Florida Law, the element for second degree murder charge, is that the state have to show that the defendant intended to kill the victim, whereas in the charge of manslaughter, it is not necessary for the state to prove that Zimmerman intended to kill the victim Continue reading...

Criminal Law

The Speedy Trial Act has reference to the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution that ensures all criminal defendants the right to speedy and public trial (Campbell and Ohm, 2007, p. 146). In most cases, while there are some defendants who are given trials that they feel are altogether too speedy, the constitutional guarantee really serves 2 purposes. The first purpose is that speedy trial shall relieve the defendant of the pervasive consequences involved with being accused. In the event that the accused is subjected to imprisonment, the length of time that is spent in prison is considered as oppressive Continue reading...

A plea bargaining is an agreement reached upon by a prosecutor and defendant in a criminal case where a defendant pleads guilty to a particular charge for some concession from the prosecutor. It can also be understood as the defendant pleading guilty to one of several charges or to a less serious charge, in return for the dismissing of other charges. A plea bargain is advantageous as it allows both parties to avoid long criminal trial and makes criminal defendants avoid the risk of being convicted on a more serious charge (Packer, 1968). Plea bargaining, however, has been criticized Continue reading...

Cleveland v. Harrison Manufacturing

As the lawyer for the defendant, the impact of the Cleveland decision will relieve the defendant from any liability to Ms. Plaintiff. The issue in this case is whether or not defendant is liable to Ms. Plaintiff for selling a product that is unfit for use as a mouth guard designed for boxing. Basic is the rule that the plaintiff who suffered negligence by using a product must be able to prove that he suffered damage from the failure of the defendant to fulfill an expected standard of care in the creation of a product.
Ms. Plaintiff can file Continue reading...

Thesis

The word felony means a very serious crime that has been brought up against a person. It is a crime that is considered to have high levels of seriousness, for example Murder. A person who commits a felony is known as a felon. This paper reviews all the steps that are taken on a felon from the arrest to their conviction in state courts in the United States.

Arrest

There are different ways that a felon can be arrested. This starts with an arrest by the citizens or the police department. A citizen arrest is one which an individual who Continue reading...

Facts

On the evening of May 18 1985, the defendant and his friend Peter Maskorich were drinking. They left the bar at around midnight. In the early morning hours, the defendant and Maskorich wound up racing the defendant’s boat in Sacramento River. There were no floatation devices in the boat. At 3am, Gary Bingham heard noise and he went outside and saw a boat with two people inside at the bend in the river. Rodney and Susan Logan who were fishing also saw an aluminium boat with two men in it. The boat had no running lights and it Continue reading...

Introduction

The research that was conducted was aimed at checking the effect of defendant facial expression on mock juror decision-making especially the power of remorse. Researchers had an interest in the facial expression of the defendant and this led them to experimentally manipulate the exhibit of remorse and anger in the defendant pictures so that they could assess the weight that could lead to decision making b y the mock jurors. The research discovered that, the defendants who were remorseful had more lenient verdicts when they were compared to those of an angry defendant. (Christian, 2001).

There was a major Continue reading...

The defendant has been charged with a series of crimes including homicide, assault of a police officer, kidnapping, burglary, and crimes related to drugs. The first issue is whether Stu Dents understands these charges and is competent to stand trial. Competency to stand trial requires that a defendant have the mental capacity to understand the changes against him, the procedures of the court, and the consequences of his being found guilty. He must also be competent enough to be able to help his lawyers plan a legal strategy, remember and describe details related to the crimes charged against him, Continue reading...

The US Constitution is the supreme law that governs the United States of America. The law created a national government and primary laws, and also established specific basic human rights for the citizens. The constitution contains seven Articles and 27 Amendments. The constitution has been in existence for more than 200 years and in the process, it has undergone important ramifications to make it better (The United States Court, 2014). The paper will discuss the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments of the US Constitution, and how they apply in adult and juvenile court proceedings.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits the Continue reading...

Trial vs. Plea Bargaining

Trial
The oldest and most well-known form of dispute resolution in criminal cases is the jury trial (Kadri, 2005). Certainly, the jury trial is the fundamental dispute resolution mechanism of the American adversarial legal system. In fact, the core principle of the criminal justice system holds that disputes are most effectively resolved when the parties in contention are made responsible for: (1) investigating and gathering their own evidence and (2) presenting their own arguments to a neutral and passive lay decision-maker who decides which party presented the most convincing argument (Kadri, 2005). Furthermore, the entire process is subject to Continue reading...

The Defendant had been estranged from the complainant, who was his wife. The wife, Marjory Damms was also separated from her mother. The defendant wanted to reconcile his wife and her mother, hoping that it would lead to reconciliation between himself and Marjory. On the morning of 6th April, 1959 the defendant drove to where Marjory stayed, and waited at a bus stop he knew she frequented. When she arrived he lied to her that her mother was unwell, and convinced her to get into his car. When they arrived at the mother’s home, Marjory realized that the Continue reading...

Introduction

Before the establishment of the M’Naghten rule, it was not clear whether or not an insane individual could be judged as being guilty if the individual was accused of any criminal offence. The M'Naghten Rule refers to a rule that was established in 1843 in a case that involved Daniel M’Naghten and the then England Prime minister Sir Robert Peel, (Goldstein, 1980). The rule can be said to be test for criminal insanity. It is important to note that as per this rule on the basis of insanity reasons, the defendant cannot be judged as being Continue reading...

Right to counsel

Criminal law refers to a body of rules that deals with crime. It defines the actions that are constitutionally allowed because they jeopardize, harm or harm the safety of the people who commit them. During the criminal case proceedings, a defendant is entitled to the right to counsel or self representation. Meaning, a defendant may either opt to be represented by a legally empowered law expert (attorney) or represent themselves in the court of law (Israel, J.H. et al., 2003).

The history of the right to counsel can be traced to the colonial era. Many historians believe that this Continue reading...

Explain Whether Anybody In The Scenario Below May Have A Claim In The Tort Of Negligence

“Negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do.” Per Alderson B. and Blyth V (1856).
In order to establish an understanding with regards to negligence it is very necessary to examine with clarity that whether the defendant is truly careless or ignorant when it comes to performing his duties. And at the same time Continue reading...

Facts: Gucci America, Inc., is a New York Corporation which headquarters are located in New York City. Gucci is engaged in manufacturing and distributing luxury goods: footwear, belts, sunglasses, wallets being sold worldwide. Gucci uses twenty-one federally registered trademarks.
Wang Huoqing, a resident of the People’s Republic of China, has been discovered by Gucci to operate numerous Web sites offering for sale products which illicitly bear Gucci’s trademarks. Gucci hired a private investigator in California to buy goods from Wang Huoqing Web sites. The investigator bought a wallet labeled Gucci which was counterfeit. After that, Gucci claimed Continue reading...

Lewis v. United States

Facts: An undercover officer in the department of narcotics called Lewis to find out whether he would sell him marijuana. The officer disguised his identity; he identified himself as Jimmy the Pollack. Lewis agreed to the officer’s request and directed him to his residence where the transaction would take place. The officer went to the petitioner’s abode and made his purchase; these transactions happened severally. Lewis was on one occasion arrested and charged with infringing federal drug laws. The District Court convicted Lewis following a denial to pre-trial motion seeking to suppress. The First Circuit affirmed this Continue reading...

In the case involving Snookie P and the plaintiff, the defendant was caught coming out of the plaintiff’s store, having stolen juice, cigarettes, some razors and a few other items. This was after a hurricane that had struck the locality, meaning that businesses had to remain closed.
Snookies argument was that her children had gone without food and water for some time and she had been left with no alternative than to break into the store and steal these items. Notably, the defendant has been convicted of burglary on three other occasions meaning that she is a habitual Continue reading...

Introduction

The insanity defense is an amendment to the strict rules of common law that allows an accused to be acquitted, completely or substantially, of the charges leveled against him, whether he is guilty or not. For this plea to hold water in a court of law, defendants must provide sufficient notification to the court. The court will then use health experts to examine the accused and determine their state of the psychology. The defense may also bring witnesses, who personally know the accused, to the stand to testify on his or her mental capacity.
However, the nature of the Continue reading...

Conviction of the defendant

The defendant can be convicted if found in possession of the drug paraphernalia. This is because the possession of the “crack pipe” is itself a violation of the act on Drug Paraphernalia Control Act (Gardner, & Anderson, 2012). Moreover, possession is regarded as an actus reus, which is criminal act based on omission when the law that demands an action of an individual is violated. As such, the defendant was in possession of the item, which is used in inhaling substances, which are controlled to human body. Further, the defendant was aware that the item in possession was the cracking Continue reading...

The judges mainly rely on a various principles when interpreting the acts of parliament. These rules include:

- The literal rule.
- The golden rule.
- The mischief rule.

The literal rule

It is the cardinal rule of construction (interpretation) of statutes. In this rule, words must be given their ordinary, literal, grammatical meaning. The literal rule is the first rule to be used in establishing the intention of the legislature.
In many cases, the courts are normally required to interpret the meaning of a given piece of legislation to enable them apply facts to the cases that come before the judges. As such, the courts have continually developed a wide range of rules of interpretation to assist them Continue reading...

People v. Poplar 20 Mich. App. 132, 173 N.W.2d 732 (1970) was an appeal filed in the Michigan Appellate Court by Marathon Poplar seeking to set aside a conviction of lower court that had found him guilty of aiding and abetting the crime of breaking and entering and of assault with intent to commit murder. The facts of the case which gave rise to the appeal are as follows.
On December 3, 1964 in the early morning hours, two men, Clifford Lorrick and Alfred Williams broke into the Oak recreation park building. However, before they could steal anything from Continue reading...

The trial of Priscilla Van Acker

Introduction (Abstract)
As the prosecuting attorney in this case, it is imperative to reiterate the fact that my brief essentially entails ensuring that the ends of justice are met. In that breadth, I wish to submit that it is not justice if the interests of the complainant and indeed in this case the prosecution are served without due consideration of the accused’s interests. Ideally, balancing the two contrasting and conflicting interests would be the most essential in this case. That notwithstanding I wish to deliver my side of the bargain. It is my contention that indeed the accused Continue reading...

The case of Mathias v. Accor Economy Lodging delves into the question on whether failure by the motel to take preventative measures against a situation that result in offensive non-consensual touching and some degree of physical harm constitute intentional torts. It further looks at whether such failure as well as the subsequent non disclosure of possible harm is an intentional tort whose remedy can go beyond compensatory damages. The case is on the in intentional torts of fraud and battery. Battery involves the intentional offensive
non-consensual touching while fraud is the act of a known misrepresentation (Barth, 2008).
The Continue reading...

Abstract

In most jurisdictions, tort is regarded a civil wrong but under certain circumstances it is also regarded as a criminal case e.g. in cases of assault. In legal circles it acts as a basis for an action of a lawsuit. Torts are categorised under the law of obligations. Duties that fall under tort law are regarded as a necessary requirement for all citizens unlike voluntary obligations imposed under contracts. If a person commits a tortious act, then in legal term for the person is a Tortfeasor. Tortious acts include breach of duties imposed under statutory laws, negligence, inflicting Continue reading...

Section I. Circle the letter of the most appropriate answer.
1. In Griswold v. Connecticut the Supreme Court found that Connecticut’s statute, which banned contraceptives, violated a freedom expressly protected by which of the first ten amendments of the Constitution of the United States:
a. The First Amendment.
b. The Fifth Amendment.
c. The Fourth Amendment.
d. None of the above.
2. “Substantive due process” refers to those procedures:
a. that are expressly enumerated within the four corners of the United States Constitution.
b. that are not expressly enumerated by the Constitution but held to be essential to Continue reading...

The petitioner in this case, Sherry Burt, a Warden at a Michigan correctional facility moved to the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and seeking a writ of certiorari against the decision. The matters that came up for consideration at the Supreme Court involved weighty constitutional issues namely whether the Sixth Circuit gave an appropriate deference to the state trial court decision in Michigan as enshrined in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The second constitutional issue that was subject to determination by the court in this case Continue reading...

Criminal Defense

In most jurisdictions, when an individual is accused of a criminal offense, he or she must appear in court of law to answer the charges (Farrell, 2008). In this circumstance, the accused individual is known as the defendant. Therefore, as a defendant, one is supposed to establish a criminal defense with the assistance of a criminal attorney in order to avoid a guilty verdict (LexisNexis, 2012). The prosecutor is the other party which tries to prove that the criminal act performed by the defendant is factual. A criminal defense can be described as a strategic argument which attempts to Continue reading...

Knarles and Barkley Case Study

Liabilities under Contract Law
Chetum vs Knarles & Barkley
Fact: Knarles wants to repudiate a contract between Chetum and Barkley.

Issue: Breach of contract. Chetum entered into a contract with Barkley that Knarles, Barkley’s father and business partner, refuses to accept. Does Knarles repudiation of the contract constitute a breach of contract?

Rule of Law: A contract must have the following elements in order to be enforceable: (1) mutual consent, manifested by offer and acceptance, (2) consideration, (3) legality of object, and (4) capable parties (Calamari and Perillo, 1998).
Application: Barkley sent a contract (offer), which Chetum signed (acceptance), Continue reading...

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Criminal Behavior

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is described as “the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor” (Baker & Alfonso, 2006, p. 1) where a traumatic stressor must involve threatened or actual serious injury or death “or other threat to one’s physical integrity” (Baker & Alfonso, 2006, p. 1). The event can be directly experienced or witnessed, although it can also be about a person learning of a traumatic event that violently or unexpectedly occurred to a close associate or a family member. Examples of such events include growing up in an environment in the Continue reading...

Law of Torts in Business

Introduction

In the laws of a country, the law of tort is concerned with how someone treats their neighbour. A person should not injure a person neither should he trespass into a neighbour’s property. Such acts are considered to be criminal in nature and the individual will be liable in a court of law. The law of torts covers a range of actions such as negligence, intentional injury and defamation that ruins an individual’s reputation. The law of torts is best illustrated by the case of Donogue vs. Continue reading...

CITATION: 18 Cal. 3d 660

FACTS:
A women brought action against a man whom which she lived with for approximately six years. Plaintiff alleged that she and the defendant entered into an oral agreement that the plaintiff would give up her career and become a housemaker and housekeeper. The plaintiff quit her job as an entertainer and singer in order to cook and clean for the defendant. In return, the defendant would provide all financial support to the plaintiff for the remainder of her life. Plaintiff alleged that the two would combine their efforts and earnings and share the property they acquired throughout their Continue reading...