Assignment:
Part 1
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discretionary decision making is decision making that's hidden from view. It includes decisions by police, prosecutors, judges, and others.
a. What kind of discretionary decisions might be made by each of these actors in the criminal justice system?
b. How might their decisions affect offenders in different ways?
c. In similar ways?
2. Two affirmative defenses include justification and excuse.
a. What are the defenses of justification and excuse?
b. How do they differ?
c. What must a defendant do to successfully use these defenses?
3. Two forms of social control are torts and crimes.
a. What are the differences between these two forms of social control?
b. What are the similarities?
c. Should the U.S. use the social control of criminal punishment to the extent that it does?
d. Why? Why not?
4. What is the most common form of criminal law?
a. Why? Should federal government be more involved in criminal law?
i. Why? Why not?
b. Should judges also be lawmakers?
i. Why? Why not?
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Find your cities' public order codes and write a paper identifying codes that you believe are reasonable and those that seem egregious. Students should provide support for their opinions.
2. Find a newspaper article on a recent criminal case. Discuss the implications of the article regarding the defendant's right to a presumption of innocence.
3. Outline and brief the Supreme Court case Kansas v. Marsh (2005).
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/05pdf/04-1170.pdf
Part 2
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. One of the important issues that the Constitution addresses is the balanceof power of government with the liberty of individuals. This keeps rulers from abusing their power. What are some of the difficulties surrounding the balance of power even with the limits placed on such power by the Constitution?
a. What can happen when the power of government and the liberty of individuals becomes unbalanced?
2. What are the problems with vague laws?
a. What can and has happened in the past when laws are so vague that an ordinary person cannot understand them?
3. The Second Amendment protects against the government's restriction on the individual right to use handguns to protect us in our homes.
This right has generated a great deal of controversy in the history of the United States. Discuss the arguments on both sides of this controversy.
a. How have the decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) addressed the controversy?
b. What have these two cases not addressed?
4. The Supreme Court has decided that the right to privacy is a fundamental right that requires the government to prove that a compelling interest justifies invading it.
a. How has the Court used the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to provide citizens with this right?
b. Has the Court overstepped its bounds regarding some issues?
5. The Eighth Amendment protects people from excessive punishment and codifies the principle that "punishment should fit the crime."
a. What special considerations are made when the penalty is death?
b. Are there any considerations that the Supreme Court has made that you disagree with?
c. Are there any considerations that should be included that aren't?
Part 3
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. voluntary acts qualify as actus reus. Affirmative defenses provide excuses for criminal liability.
a. What was the excuse in King v. Cogdon (1951) and in People v. Decina (1956)?
b. Discuss the differences in the two cases.
2. Criminal omissionsconsist of two types: failure to report and failure to intervene to prevent injuries and death to persons or the damage and destruction of property. Omissions are criminal omissions only if defendants had a legal dutyto act.
a. What kinds of crimes constitute criminal omissions? Discuss the ways in which a legal duty can be created.
b. Discuss the types of relationships to which criminal omissions are likely to apply.
3. Choose a crime(s) from the local newspaper. Discuss the five elements of a crime that the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt: actusreus, mens rea, concurrence, attendant circumstances, and bad result.
4. "Action" refers to what we do; "status" (or condition) denotes who we are. Most statuses or conditions don't qualify as actus reus. Status can arise in two ways. First as a prior voluntary act as with addiction or alcoholism, second as a characteristic such as gender or race.
a. Discuss why status cannot be made a crime.
b. In what ways does the definition of status impact laws such as hate crime statutes?
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Review the case of Miller v. State in the chapter.
a. Choose the majority opinion or the dissent. Write your answer in support of your side. **Provide support for you opinion.**
2. Find a newspaper article on a recent criminal case of omission, discuss the article and why, in this particular situation, omission is considered to be an act.
Part 4
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Criminal intent, or mens rea, is the mental state that accompanies a forbidden act. This differs from motive, which is something that causes a person to act. Motive is not a required element of a crime.
a. What kind of crime is motive most likely to be important?
b. How might the motive for a crime impact sentencing by a jury?
c. Discuss cases you have heard or read about in the news were criminal intent and motive are important.
2. The Model Penal Code's (MPC) four mental states are: purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently.
a. Discuss what each of these means and what crimes are most likely to fall ineach category.
b. Should mental state impact punishment? Why?
3. What are the strict liability crimes in your state?
a. Why do you think these behaviors have been made strict liability crimes?
b. How are they punished?
c. Are there any strict liability crimes in your state that you think should not be crimes? Why?
d. Are there some behaviors that are not criminal that should be strict liability crimes? Why?
4. What is causation?
a. How does factual cause differ from legal cause?
b. In what ways do the two types of causation impact a criminal case differently?
c. What are intervening cause, proximate cause and superseding cause and how do they affect criminal cases?
5. When is mistake a defense?
a. Is it really a defense?
b. What does it mean to say that mistake is a failure-of-proof defense?
c. In what kind of crimes is mistake not a defense? Why not?
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Go online and find three local criminal statutes.
a. Identify the general and specific part of the criminal statutes.
b. Find a newspaper article on liability without fault crimes.
c. The chapter states that liability without fault is imposed in order to protect public health and safety. Do the articles found by the students support this argument?
d. If so, explain how the public health and safety has been protected (not just the obvious, are there any ways might be less obvious)?
2. Outline and brief the case Harris v. State (1999). This case involves the adoption and application of general intent plus. Disscuss the court's rationale in applying the definition of specific intent.
https://www.courts.state.md.us/opinions/coa/1999/81a98.pdf
3. Compare and contrast the MPC's four different mental states of:
a. culpability: purposely, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently.
4. Identify the importance of concurrence. Discussion should include what crimes concurrence applies to and how it relates to causation.
Part 5
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The English common law put the burden on defendants to prove they "retreated to the wall" before acting in self-defense. The American majority "stand-your-ground rule" was based on the idea that a "man" shouldn't have to flee from attack because he'd done nothing wrong to provoke or deserve the attack and the need to protect the family and country, and could stand his ground and kill to "defend himself without retreating from any place he had a right to be." Which do you agree with? What are the arguments in favor of each law?
2. At the heart of the choice-of-evils defense is the necessity to prevent imminent danger.
a. What are the three steps contained in the Model Penal Code (MPC)?
b. What are the "right choices" identified by the MPC?
c. Can you think of any other "right choices?" Discuss the ethical dilemmas inherent in these kinds of situations.
3. Self-defense consists of four elements:unprovoked attack; necessity; proportionality; reasonable belief.
a. Discuss each of these elements and how they apply to the self-defense justification.
b. How might the "castle doctrine" and the justification of self-defense work together in some situations?
4. What is the defense of consent?
a. What does it mean that consent has to be voluntary and knowing?
b. To what four situations does the defense of consent apply?
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Read the article below regarding the Texas castle doctrine.
a. Discuss your opinion of the article.
b. Does the information change your mind about the castle doctrine?
c. Do you believe that the concerns in the article are valid?
d. Should Texas continue with its expanded castle doctrine? Why or why not?
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-justifiable-homicides-rise-with-Castle-3676412.php
2. Identify and define each of the four elements of self-defense.(The assignment should include a discussion of why each of the four elements is important.)
3. Read the following two articles regarding the ArminMeiwes cannibalism case.
a. Identify the problems with the consent defense based on the material in the chapter.
b. Discuss the first decision from 2004 and the decision in the retrial in 2006. Which decision do they agree with?
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3443293.stm
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4752797.stm
4. How have castle laws impacted domestic violence in this country?
a. Has the change been positive or negative in your opinion?
b. What are the domestic violence laws in your city?
c. How does your city handle domestic violence cases?