CJA 354 Week 2 Reading Assignment Review

This work of CJA 354 Week 2 Reading Assignment Review shows the solutions to the following problems:

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

1) When a defendant argues that he or she could not have committed the crime in question, that he or she has an alibi, the defendant's defense is a justification.

2) Justifications and excuses are affirmative defenses.

3) Conduct that violates the law cannot be justifiable.

4) Bob, a college student, is late to take a final exam. He jumps in his car and runs a red light in order to get to campus in time for his exam. If Bob gets a ticket for running the light, he can claim the defense of necessity.

5) Self-defense to a criminal charge is based on the recognition that a person has an inherent right to self-protection.

6) Bob and Ray get into an argument. Bob threatens to slap Ray. Fearful of being slapped, Ray responds by pulling a gun and shooting Bob. Ray has defended himself with reasonable force.

7) Ray watches Bob unlawfully start a fight with a stranger. The stranger begins to get the best of Bob, so Ray steps in to help Bob. Ray may not escape criminal liability by claiming his action was the legitimate defense of others.

8) Under the castle exception, it is still necessary to retreat from one's dwelling in the face of an immediate threat before resorting to deadly force in protection of the home.

9) The execution of public duty defense is available to law enforcement officers to protect them from being prosecuted for crimes, like assault, when lawfully exercising their authority.

10) The fleeing felon rule, which allows the police to shoot a suspected felon who attempts to flee from a lawful arrest, is the law in most state and federal courts.

FILL IN THE BLANK / SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

11) ________ is/are a category of legal defenses in which the defendant admits committing the act in question but claims it was necessary in order to avoid some greater evil.

12) ________ is/are based on the recognition that a person has an inherent right to self-protection and that to reasonably defend oneself from unlawful attack is a natural response to threatening situations.

13) Reasonable force can be thought of as the ________ degree of force necessary to protect oneself in the face of a substantial threat.

14) As a general rule, the preservation of human life outweighs protection of ________.

15) Under the common law, it was lawful to use ________ to resist an illegal arrest.

Chapter 6

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

16) Excuses are affirmative defenses and must be raised by the defendant.

17) An honest mistake of law will generally preclude criminal liability.

18) One rationale for the infancy defense is that children are too young to complete the actus rea needed for criminal activity.

19) The defense of compulsion claims that law enforcement officers are guilty of manufacturing a crime where none would otherwise exist.

20) The defense of insanity is in the category of excuses.

21) Even a psychotic person can be competent to stand trial.

22) The legally insane are not responsible for their behavior not because they don't intend it, but because they lack a moral appreciation for the wrong they have done.

23) The definitive work on mental disorders, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, sets out the legal definition of insanity.

24) The ALI substantial capacity test is a modernized version of the M'Naughten Rule.

25) The insanity defense is used in less than 1% of felony cases in the United States.

FILL IN THE BLANK / SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.

26) Excuses claim that the defendant should be excused from criminal liability because of special ________.

27) An offender may be classified as a(n) ________ because a statutorily defined event caused by the offender was alleged to have occurred while his or her age was below a statutorily specified age limit.

28) The United States Supreme Court has held that to require a(n) ________ defendant to stand trial is a violation of the defendant's due process rights.

29) ________ is a defense based on claims of a mental condition, which may be insufficient to exonerate a defendant of guilt but that may be relevant to specific mental elements of certain crimes or degrees of crime.

30) Some scholars advocate eliminating the insanity defense and replacing it with a test to assess the presence or absence of a culpable ________ state in a defendant who is thought to be suffering from mental disease or defect.