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Prosecuting Argument Team Paper 8

Prosecuting Argument Team C Paper

Andrea Cardwell
William Faison

Sheri Gurule

Krystal Littrell

Kelly Steele

Gary Valle

CJS/305

March 13, 2017

1. Professor Jerri Green

Prosecuting Argument Team Paper

Stu Dents has been charged with the murder of Uma Opee. Opee was stabbed thirteen times, which caused her to bleed to death and was found with a cloth in her mouth as well as several cuts and bruises on her body indicating there had been a struggle. The defendant had a key to the victim’s apartment which he used to gain entry to Opee’s home, so there were no signs of forced entry. DNA evidence under the victim’s fingernails was a match to the defendant, which indicates he may have been the last person to see Opee alive and proves there was some type of struggle. The defendant kept a journal with entries from the first meeting he had with the victim up until the night before the murder occurred. Dents had obsessive tendencies toward the victim which is evident from all the journal entries, as well as the over 300 photographs found on the wall of his apartment. A blue pill, known as ecstasy was found at the victim’s apartment under a table and the same type of blue pill was also found at the defendant’s home which was proven to be a match. There was blood found in the victim’s home as well as rope particles and there was an entry in the defendant’s journal of his plans to purchase rope, rags, and a sharp hunting knife to fulfill his destiny.

The prosecution has more than enough evidence to prosecute Stu Dents on the charges of homicide, assault on a police officer, kidnapping, and burglary. The reasons prosecution pushed for the charges Stu Dents fit the following areas from evidence:

Homicide

Homicide is a criminal crime where one person kills another human being. Homicide has four elements which are:

1. Intent: this is the reason for which homicide is committed since, for the act to happen, a person ought to think of the crime before doing it. There is deliberation on which reasons brought the action. Lastly, intent also occurs in an inverted manner.

2. Act: this is the real action which led to the death of a person through the hands of another one. It involves the reasons which led to death or causing of the Act (Smit, 2012). This element tries to find out the situation which resulted in the death and any remedy if any were possible.

3. Causation: this element concerns with the event which caused the death of the victim. It aims at establishing that the person who committed the crime is responsible and thus seek to settle any uncertainties.

4. Sentence: this element is the last in homicide crime, and it claims that if a person is found guilty, then the person must be charged with felony sentence and jailed.

Assault of a police officer

• An act intended to create: this element requires that the accused must act with the intention of creating a situation of danger in the victim.

• Reasonable apprehension: the element seeks to provide a reasonable belief that the defendant will harm the victims. It attempts to apprehend the act by defendant.

• Imminent harm: the defendant ought to feel fear depending to the threat which is immediately about to occur. The element seeks to present future physical danger to the victim, and thus words will not generally bring assault.

• Either offensive or harmful: the behavior of the defendant should present a physical threat to the victim. Acting to slap the victim by maybe an assault and this might be a result of offensive behavior.

Kidnapping

• Unlawful taking of the victim: the act is executed by forcing the victim and being taken against his or her will. The element helps in differentiating with other acts which might be confused with it.

• Nefarious motive: this element tries to explain the purpose of kidnapping as it cuts across the good intention.

Burglary

• Breaking and entry: Burglary is executed by the defendant breaking into someone’s home and executing the crime. This entry is unauthorized.

• Intent: this element requires a defendant that he or she enters a structure and commits a crime. An intention, in this case, may include fraud, assault or any other act.

In Alabama, for the charge of homicide, Stu Dents would be facing the charge of murder (C.A.S. 13A-6-2). The charge of assault on a police officer would be a combined offense under second-degree assault. The charge of kidnapping would be kidnapping in the first degree (C.A.S 13A-6-43). The charge of burglary would be first-degree burglary (Ala code §13A-7-5, 13A-7-6, 13A-7-7).

In California, Homicide refers to a scenario where one person kills another. Non-criminal homicide is where one takes a life of another in a manner that will not attract criminal sanctions while criminal homicide is where wrongfully taking a life of a person and it's punishable by the law (Daly, 2010). The criminal justice system uses the court to determine the nature and the type of crime, and then the punishment is passed. Stu Dents would be facing a first-degree murder charge. The charge of kidnapping would be aggravated kidnapping. Homicide is punishable either by long-term jail sentence or death. This law is more effective in Alabama as well as the hardest punishment in the crimes. Assault of a police officer may be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor, and this entirely depends on the nature of the offense. The State of California three options the results will either be Imprisonment in state prison for a term of 25 years to life; Life imprisonment in state prison without the possibility of parole; or. Death (though it should be noted that capital punishment is currently suspended. has the highest number of police assault and thus the highest application of the law. In the State of California kidnapping is a felony, subjecting you to up to 8 years in the California state prison. Aggravated kidnapping is a felony and carries a sentence of five years to life, depending on the facts of the case. Kidnapping is a strike under California's three strikes law, you must serve at least 85% of your sentence before you are eligible for release. Burglary may be charged with a felony or misdemeanor, and could be divided into “first-degree burglary” and second-degree burglary.” First-degree burglary is burglary of a residence. Second-degree burglary is burglary of any other type of structure (including stores and businesses).

In Colorado, for the charge of homicide, Stu Dents would be facing murder in the first degree (C.R.S. 18-3-102). The charge of assault on a police officer would be assault on a police officer (C.R.S. 18-3-203). The charge of kidnapping would be kidnapping in the first degree (C.R.S 18-3-301, 18-3-302). The charge of burglary would be burglary.

In North Carolina, for the charge of homicide, Stu Dents would be facing a first-degree murder charge (§122C-3). The charge of assault on a police officer would be a misdemeanor assault charge. The charge of kidnapping would be kidnapping. The charge of burglary would be first degree burglary because the victim was present during the time of the burglary.

Stu Dents case will be prosecuted in Colorado because the laws allow the case to be the strongest. For the homicide portion, the victim was stabbed thirteen times by the defendant and bled to deaths. DNA from the defendant was found under the victim’s fingernails with a reference to the Colorado statute for murder. Assault on a police officer that occurred during the defendant’s arrest (when he punched the officer who was trying to cuff him) with a reference to the California statute for assault. Kidnapping occurred because the victim was taken from her home and was found with her hands and feet tied and particles from the same type of rope was found in her apartment. Burglary could include the fact that the defendant was seen entering the victim’s apartment and the ring that belonged to the victim was found in the defendant’s home. For the crimes related to drugs would be drug possession charges because the defendant had illegal drugs in his home and the pill that was found in the victim’s apartment was also a match for drugs the defendant had in his possession.

References

Daly, M. &. (2010) Homicide. Transaction Publishers.

Ferner, R. E. (2011). Medication errors that have led to manslaughter charges. BMJ: British Medical Journal.

Schmalleger, PH.D., F., & Hall, J.D., ED.D., D. E. (2014). Criminal Law Today (5th ed.). Retrieved from https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323102657/cfi/0!/4/2/2@0:28.5.

The references below need to be more and in apa format

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/pdf/bysection/chapter_122c/gs_122c-3.pdf

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14-39.html

http://www.mynorthcarolinadefenselawyer.com/criminal-charges/burglary/

Public Resource.Org, Inc. [US] https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/co/colorado.xml.older/code11.18.html