As the directions note below this is not an assignment about substantive penal law. Whether the elements of a crime exist is not the focus of this particular assignment. Instead your focus should be on how much punishment is appropriate considering the Punishment Case as described below. You will want to print this out to study as you work on the exam. You will need to read the New York Penal Law Statute to understand on a basic level how sentencing procedures work. If you want to impose no punishment, but the statute requires at least one year you should explain your position. Remember, the question is “why punish?”.
The perfect answer will identify a reasonable crime committed by the defendant based on the facts presented. The perfect answer will then identify the statutorily required punishment or range of punishment (i.e. 5-25 years). The perfect answer will state the punishment given (i.e. 10 years). The perfect answer will then explain that choice. This explanation is the key to the grade. This explanation or analysis should be approximately 80% of the paper or more. If the crime chosen is wrong and the punishment range is also incorrect, a top notch explanation will most likely earn at least a B if not more. This should be where you expend your greatest effort. Present both sides of the story. Citation is key to good legal writing. Cite to your text readings often.
Consider the different theories of punishment and ultimately explain your own conclusion. For example, why did you reject retribution and use rehabilitation instead? Conclusions without explanation are insufficient.
Good luck and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
The Punishment Case
Jack Smith (age 17) and his cousin Bill Jones (age 21) are Native Americans from Northern Ontario, Canada. They are invited to visit their other cousin Mary Loose-Doe (age 19) of Watercity, New York. This is their first visit to the U.S.A. and they are not accustomed to city life. They are from a small settlement where hunting, trapping, and fishing are the major means of earning a living.
Mary shows the two young men the pleasures of city living including nights in discos, marijuana, and alcohol. She also brings along her boyfriend, Peter Poorchoice (age 21). Peter, a high school dropout and veteran of two reformatories, tells the boys about his experiences of assaulting pizza deliverymen. He orders a pizza, waits for them behind a bush, knocks them down with a broom handle, grabs their money and then flees from the scene. He explains he does this about twice a month and this enables him to party with Mary. The boys are impressed. On the fourth day of the visit, after drinking Mary’s liquor and smoking her pot, they follow Peter’s plan. Peter and Mary coach the boys as to the proper method and stand behind them as they carry out the plan. All four are arrested after they take $29 and fail to flee the scene.
Their victim, Robert Righteous, a man of about 30, father of two, a day time mechanic and part time religious minister, is hospitalized with a concussion and broken hand. In fact, his hand requires an operation and he permanently loses some movement. He also continues to get headaches, which makes it difficult for him to concentrate. The result is that his career as an auto mechanic is jeopardized. At a Sunday prayer meeting he tells the congregation that he is not bitter towards the assaulters and asks them to forgive the sinners. His wife though, who must now take on a second job to support her family, reminds her husband and the congregation that the bible also calls for an “eye for an eye” and she wants the victimizers to suffer as she and her husband and children will.
The Trial
All four stand trial and are convicted of an appropriate charge. They are to be sentenced. Jack and Bill’s lawyer introduces to the Court the tribal chief, who explains that the tribe will take responsibility for its own. They will pay the hospital costs, but want to take custody of the boys so that tribal justice can be administered. He suggests that the boys be sent to a deserted island in Hudson Bay where for six months they will fend for themselves and learn to become proper men in the wilderness. When they return to their village they will be required to work for the tribe until the amount given to their victim is refunded to the tribe. They will also have to visit their victims and express their remorse.
Peter’s lawyer tells the judge that his client is very bright (IQ-139), but that his mother died when he was five and he was raised by an alcoholic abusive father. He further explains that Peter suffers from abuse-violent neurotic syndrome and that psychiatric evaluations show that he is in need of therapy. He also notes that while at the first reformatory he was misdiagnosed and given a drug that he has become addicted to. This habit requires that he has the necessary money to buy the drug off the street, since no doctor will give him a prescription. All efforts for counseling have failed and Peter is unable to keep a job. The state’s witness testified that Peter may have problems, but he is legally sane, knowing the difference between right and wrong, but often choosing wrong.
Mary’s court appointed lawyer notes that she ran away from home because she was raped at age 16 and did not want to embarrass her parents and her tribe. In desperation, when she arrived in Watercity she turned to prostitution. She knows no other work. She is inclined to want expensive clothes, as she has learned that if she is well attired she can pick up the better clientele at the hotel discos, who are less abusive of her. To keep from street walking she has stolen clothes from boutiques, but was caught only once. These charges were dropped when she agreed to sleep with the store’s owner. Peter was once her client, and he introduced her to drugs. After she became addicted she began to work for him. Peter regularly beats Mary and leaves her with little of her earnings. The sentencing report shows she is four months pregnant, has only two years of high school, and no employment skills. The sentencing report also notes she has a fine singing voice and had won several contests in Canada. One newspaper quoted an expert critic who concluded, “with operatic training Mary has the potential to become a first class professional.” Mary indicates she would very much like the opportunity to pursue study if only given a chance. Voice lessons may cost as much as $30,000 per year.
Sentencing
The prosecutor, Joel Notjoking, recently elected with a campaign slogan “STOP CODDLING CRIMINALS”, is asking the judge that the boys be sentenced to a chain gang, the type now being reintroduced in other states. He claims that the judge has the power under the penal law to do this, as Penal Law § 1.05 (5) requires “an appropriate public response” for the interests of the community. He argues further that if it is declared illegal by an appellate court it will be an incentive for the state legislature to change the law.
The local newspaper has written an editorial praising Prosecutor Notjoking, claiming that it is about time we got serious with criminals. Letters have been pouring into the paper in support of the prosecutor with the public praising this courageous position that will put an end to the crime wave that is plaguing the city. Some members of the public have expressed regret that the prosecutor gave a plea bargain to a former executive (CEO) of the now bankrupt company ENRICH Corporation. He left the company with a sweetheart deal that left him with a four million-dollar pension, a one million-dollar vacation house and the use of the company jet. This pillar of the community, member of the church board and the art museum (when he was CEO, the museum received a $5,000,000 grant) received a six-month sentence for embezzlement and 200 hours of community service. Watercity’s unemployment rate has grown considerably after the collapse of ENRICH.
Some letters to the editor of the local paper refer to the recent sentencing of Martha Stewart and ask that Mary, Jack, and Bill should be treated like Martha and be appropriately punished for their crime. Others feel that Martha’s punishment was too harsh since the public will be the victim as they will not benefit from Martha’s holiday advice and her animals will suffer from being separated from her. Still others wonder why Martha only received five months and the state allows her to return to her garden before spring planting.
It should also be noted that the Governor of the State, Georio Potlucki, faced with the prospect of a huge deficit in the time of a recession, is moving to lessen prison terms found in the sentencing laws. He has stated that the cost of housing non-violent criminals is draining our budgets and affecting our schools and health care facilities. He is calling for the overturn of the Rockefeller drug laws and encouraging the prison bureaucracy to do all that is possible to reduce prison overcrowding.
The Question
You are the sentencing judge, and your assignment is to declare your sentence in writing.
In order to do so, you are to choose only one crime for each of the participants and assume that they are convicted of that crime. The choice should not be an esoteric one, but one that is reasonable and representative of their acts. Remember, the exam is on punishment and not on substantive penal law. This should merely be the starting point of your discussion, not the bulk of your work.
- In declaring your sentence not only must you cite the NY Penal Law, but you must give your reasoning.
- Buttress your conclusion with reference to PL 1.05, the various theories of punishment, referring to the readings, the various philosophical approaches, as well as case material.
- Be sure to include discussion of the various theorists who speak about punishment.
- Explain why you took the approach you did and why you rejected the other approaches.
- Divide your answer for each of the characters by first stating the crime the characters are convicted of and the sentence imposed.
Additional Guidelines
Typically I do not provide minimum page requirements. However to thoroughly analyze the reasons for punishment of each character at least three (3) pages will probably be needed.
