Berghuis v. Thompkins Van Chester Thompkins was convicted of first-degree murder, assault with intent to commit murder, and several firearms related charges, in a Michigan state court. Thompkins went on to appeal and said that his confession was obtained in violation of the Fifth Amendment and that he asks but was denied effective counsel at trail. “The Sixth Circuit held that the Michigan Supreme Court's finding that Thompkins waived his Fifth Amendment right was unreasonable because Thompkins refused to sign an acknowledgement that he had been informed of his Miranda rights and rarely made eye contact with the officer throughout the three hour interview” (Rosenzweig & Shatz, 2010). The Sixth Circuit found Thompkins did not waive his Miranda rights and that ineffective counsel unfairly prejudiced him. The issue in this case is as followed: “Whether a state court’s determination that a defendant’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights were not violated — where he was interrogated for three hours while silent before making an incriminating statement and where his lawyer failed to request a limiting instruction — is entitled to deference under 28 U.S.C.
“Anatomy of a Murder” A. Summary- “Anatomy of a Murder” is about an attorney, Paul Biegler, who represents a man, Lieutenant Manion, who is charged with first degree murder for killing a man, Barney Quill, who allegedly raped his wife, Laura Manion. Paul Biegler use to be a district attorney, but after losing the re-election he began his own practice as a defense attorney. Biegler was not very busy until he began to defend Lieutenant Manion. On the very first occasion of meeting Laura Manion, she was very flirtatious with Biegler. As Biegler interviewed Lieutenant Manion in the county jail, Manion expressed that he was a 28 year old lieutenant who served in the Korean War.
Defendant was gone when Locklear regained consciousness. Butler was convicted of first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to death. Butler had an automatic right to appeal the conviction to the Supreme Court of California. Issues: To be convicted of larceny or robbery, must the defendant possess felonious intent to take the personal property of another person without believing, in good faith, that the defendant has a right or claim to the property? Rule: To be convicted of larceny or robbery, the defendant must possess felonious intent to take the personal property of another person without believing, in good faith, that the defendant has a right or claim to the property.
Marbury doesn’t get the commission. In a unanimous decision, written by Justice Marshall, the Court stated that Marbury, indeed, had a right to his commission. But, more importantly, the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional. In Marshall's opinion, Congress could not give the Supreme Court the power to issue an order granting Marbury his commission. Only the Constitution could, and the document said nothing about the Supreme Court having the power to issue such an order.
Summary of the Case Eric Michael Clark was charged with murdering an Arizona police officer. Clark was a paranoid schizophrenic and was not able to submit evidence during his trial that would exonerate him of the ability to commit the crime charged. Under Arizona law, Clark was permitted to present evidence of his psychiatric condition to support an insanity defense. Arizona law states that an insanity defense must establish by clear and convincing evidence that as a result of mental illness at the time of the crime he “did not know the criminal act was wrong.” ("Clark v. arizona," 2006) The judge in Clark’s case refused to consider psychiatric evidence to reject his mens rea, due to nonsupport of Arizona case law. Clark’s conviction was also sustained by The Arizona Court of Appeals.
The definition of a warrantless arrest is “An arrest made without a warrant. At common law, an officer was justified in making an arrest without a warrant if the officer reasonably believed that the defendant had committed a misdemeanor in his or her presence or had committed any felony” (Barron’s, 2003). Once arrested there is no exact amount of time a person can be held (it is not usually more than 48 hours) depending on the case. During this time the officer, can finger print the subject and check for outstanding warrants. Once the officer or detective reads the arrestee his Miranda rights, he may be questioned.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird is directly comparable to the movie 12 Angry Men. Both Texts show the theme that true understanding takes time, study, and effort, but To Kill a Mockingbird shows what happens when people do not take the time to obtain a true understanding. In the book Tom Robinson is convicted for allegedly raping a teenage girl even though there was sensible doubt that Tom did not rape the girl and there was no concrete evidence. In the film a teenage male Puerto Rican was accused of murdering his father. All the evidence and the defendant weak testimony made him look so guiltily that 11 out of 12 jurors voted guilty in the preliminary vote.
Dominick Askew What’s the punishment for police brutality? What’s the punishment for defending yourself against police brutality? In the case of Troy Davis, Davis defended himself from being beating by two officers of the law leading him to kill one of them. With the actions of Davis in 1989 he was recently put to death in 2011 with no evidence of him committing that crime. Seven out of nine witnesses that testified against Davis said they were coerced into providing a false testimony.
After two mistrials the California Supreme Court released the case. In another instance two days after the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. , Bobby Hutton, a Black Panther minister, was involved in a police ambush when police opened fire on Hutton and another Panther. Two police officers were wounded and Bobby Hutton was killed. This time it was different though, the Panthers were not blamed for the shooting or the shots fired, the public sided with the B.P.P. and held the police resonsible for the
He was later caught because there was a witness that claimed to see what turned out to be his car speeding away from where one of his victims disappeared from. He was also recognized when his picture appeared on the television show “America’s Most Wanted”. McDuff was tried for two of the murders he committed. “If McDuff had been executed as scheduled, he said, “No telling how many lives would have been saved.” This is why for people who truly value public safety, there is no substitute for the best defense which is capital punishment” (“Deterrent”