Cja 354 Criminal Law Research Paper

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Criminal Law Lisa A. Smith CJA/354 May 19, 2014 Tameika Devine Criminal Law This was a case Miller v. Alabama were a gentleman went over to his neighbor’s house with his friend and beat his neighbor and then set the neighbor’s trailer on fire after he had been drinking and getting drunk for most of the night. Because of Miller’s and his friends’ actions the neighbor died. When Miller first went to court he was charges as a juvenile but because the act of crime was so horrific it got moved to the adult courts. When he was moved to the adult courts, Miller was charged with murder with the course of arson. The outcome of the trial found Miller guilty and was sentenced to life without parole. What interested me about the case is that a juvenile received a life sentence without parole. In most cases in most states they would try a juvenile as a juvenile no matter how severe the case is. I do not think all juveniles should be tried as an adult but if they murder someone and they know what they were doing when they committed the crime then they need to be tried as an adult. I do agree that juveniles need to be…show more content…
Mens rea means the intention or knowledge wrong doing that constitute a crime. Concurrence means the difference between committing the crime and the intent to do the crime. In the court system one must prove that the defendant had the intent to do the crime and also committed the actual crime. In the (Miller v. Alabama) case both boys had the intent to commit the crime and also followed that intent and committed the crime. Both were drinking until they were drunk and thought of the idea to go to the neighbor’s house and beat him and set his trailer on fire. Because of this, Miller knew what he was doing when he went over to the neighbor’s house and Miller should be tried as an adult even though he is only a

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