You must answer one question from Part I and one question from Part II. Everyone must answer Part III. Write in full sentences. Do not respond with an outline, single words or sentence fragments.
Please keep each of your answers under 5 pages.
Part I
Answer one (1) of the two questions below.
Follow the instructions at the end of the fact pattern you choose.
DISCLAIMER: the following accounts are believed to be fictional. It is not known whether these events actually occurred, will occur or should occur. Any resemblance between the individuals described and any actual human beings, living or dead, is unintentional and purely coincidental.
Question #1
Rob Nogoodson (“Rob”) is competing for the starting quarterback position with Doug Flukie (Doug”) on the Buffalo Nils. Tensions are running high while both try out in front of the coach for the starting job on Sunday. During one of the breaks, Doug says to Rob that he should be careful about what he does, because “family members have a way of disappearing”. Enraged, Rob has decided that he wants to be the starter, no matter what the cost. To that end, he calls his friend Vinny, another quarterback on the New York Underachievers, who did time for murdering his old coach. Rob asks Vinny to help him get Doug “out of the picture”, and if he helps, Rob will make it “worth his while”. Unknown to Rob, Vinny has been put on the Federal payroll since his last conviction, agreeing to ferret out drug use in the sport in exchange for a reduced sentence. Vinny has no intention of helping Rob, and writes a note to himself to call the authorities later, but he spills a drink on it, can no longer read the writing, and throws out the note without ever calling the Feds. Vinny’s teammate, Wayne Catchalot (“Wayne”) hears everything, and decides to kill Doug himself and get some quick cash so he can retire. Wayne begins to plan for his assassination of Doug Flukie. Believing that he will need help in order to pull this off, Wayne goes to the local watering hole to try and enlist some help. After gulping down five shots of vodka in a row, Wayne asks the bartender if he knows anyone he can trust to “do dirty work and keep their mouth shut”. The bartender say nothing, but simply puts a folded magazine in front of Wayne. It is the latest issue of “Guns Galore”, and in the back there is a highlighted advertisement which states “All problems solved permanently for $50.00”. Wayne goes home to call the toll free number, and gets a message machine from Snake Eyes, the proprietor of Problem Solvers, LLC, stating that “No one is here right now, but you leave your name, number, and who you would like eliminated, I will be sure to get back to you.” Wayne hangs up the phone, afraid to leave this kind of information recorded on a machine. Wayne then proceeds to drink a bottle of vodka and passes out on his sofa. It just so happens, however, that Snake Eyes has caller ID, and he calls back Wayne after seeing his number on his machine. Wayne somehow manages to answer the phone, and in his state tells all to Snake Eyes. They agree to a price of $100.00, due to the high profile nature of the assassination, and that Snake Eyes will make it look like an accident. Wayne then hangs up the phone and passes out again. When he awakes, he has no recollection whatsoever of the conversation with Snake Eyes.Just before the next game, Doug asks the trainer for a shot of cortisone for his ailing back. Unknown to the trainer, Snake Eyes has replaced the cortisone with insulin, although had the trainer looked at the needle, he would have seen right away that it was not cortisone in the shot. While Doug is sitting on the sidelines, he has a heart attack and dies. Fifteen seconds after he dies, Wayne shoots Doug with a high powered rifle right between the eyes. Chaos ensues, and Wayne escapes. About fifteen minutes away from the stadium, Wayne runs over a pedestrian while driving to Rob’s house to collect his payment. When he reaches Rob’s house, Rob states that he never wanted Doug dead, just injured or embarrassed by scandal so he would retire. He refuses to pay Wayne anything. To make matters worse, Wayne has a message on his machine when he gets home from Snake Eyes, stating “mission accomplished – Flukie is Flaked out – permanently. I will stop by tomorrow morning to pick up my $100.00”.When Snake Eyes comes to the door the next day, Wayne explains that he has no idea who he is or what he thinks he did, but there was no way he was going to pay him for anything, since Wayne did all the work himself. Snake Eyes angrily returns to his car, opens the trunk, and pulls out a bazooka. He points it at what he thinks is Wayne’s window, but is in actuality the apartment of the Grinch, who is looking after Cindy Lou Who, who is no more than two. Snake Eyes fires his bazooka, and the apartment is destroyed. Max, the Grinch’s dog, pulls the Grinch from the blaze, but Cindy Lou Who perishes in the fire. Crime Dog McGruff finally pieces together all this mayhem, and arrests all necessary parties. Of what crimes are the various actors arguably guilty? For each crime, be sure to discuss arguments for and against liability, and possible defenses, and the likely outcome of prosecution. Be sure to use relevant class discussion, statutes and case law throughout your answer.
Question #2
Joliet Jake has just escaped from prison. He did so by hiding himself in one of the amplifiers for his “Jailhouse Rock” show special, which was mandated by the court as a part of his punishment. The truck carrying off the amplifier was driven by Jake’s brother Elwood, who gained control of the same by knocking out the driver, throwing him in a ditch, and stealing the truck. Unknown to Elwood, 45 minutes after the blow to the head, a tornado came and swept up the still unconscious driver, killing him instantly. The escape route took Jake and Elwood through the cafeteria. In their haste, they knocked Emerald, a kitchen employee, into a large pot of mushroom soup. Unknown to the brothers, Emerald has an intense allergy to mushrooms, and upon his immediate contact with the soup, he died. Once the brothers were back in the city, Jake had a vision that God wants them to “save the children”. Jake interprets this to mean that they will need to rob banks in order to accomplish this laudable goal. Jake and Elwood set up a meeting with their old partners, Slick Willie and Tambourine Sam. Jake explains his plan to rob the First National Bank located downtown, and orders Willie to obtain the getaway car, and for Sam to obtain the necessary weapons. Willie promptly steals a U.S. mail truck. While driving back to the hideout, Willie realizes that the postal carrier is in the back of the truck. Although unarmed, Willie puts his hand in his pocket and tells him that he has “two choices – jump out or push daisies”. Unfortunately for Willie, Pete the postal carrier was going through the packages looking for some good gifts for his children. One of the packages he opened was a flame thrower. With his back to the wall, Pete aims the flame thrower at Willie. Understandably frightened at the prospect of being burned up, Willie tells Pete that he doesn’t have a gun. Pete doesn’t believe him, and burns Willie beyond recognition. During this altercation, it is also realized that postal trucks do not react well to flame throwers. The truck blows up, killing Pete instantly.At the same time, Sam sets out to get some guns to rob the bank. Luckily for Sam, there was a gun show in town being sponsored by the “Kentucky-Illinois Legally License Every Rifle Society (“K.I.L.L.E.R.S.”). At the show, Sam shows his fake ID to get in and complete the background check to purchase any weapon at the show. Once inside, he visits one of the booths to try out a weapon. The dealer shows him a .357 magnum and lets him hold it. The dealer believes that this weapon is empty, but in fact the previous customer wanted to see how the gun loaded, and another salesperson showed her how, and neglected to take the bullet out. Sam began to spin the gun around his finger, shouting, “Look at me, I’m Dirty Sammy”. While spinning the gun, it went off, killing Grandma Bates, who was looking at an Uzi at the moment she was shot. Fearing arrest, Sam runs out of the gun show and heads for the hills, never to be heard from again.When neither Willie nor Sam return, Jake and Elwood figured that they both must have “got yellow” and backed out. Jake and Elwood hop back into the truck Elwood stole and go to the bank to rob it themselves. In a rush to get to the bank before it closed for the day, Elwood ran a red light and hit another vehicle, driven by Zsa Zsa Nomore, who is incensed because she will now miss her appointment with Miss Cleo, her personal psychic. Spewing a multitude of expletives, Zsa Zsa walks up to Elwood, who was driving the truck, and punches him in the face. As she pulls back for another blow, Elwood put the truck in reverse to leave the scene. The side mirror hit Zsa Zsa on the back of her skull, killing her. During this incident, Jake has time to ponder more deeply the message he received from God, and comes to the realization that God did not want him to rob banks at all, but instead to make money through their unique style of blues and rock. They return home immediately so as they can begin to write new songs for their next album. Of what crimes are the various actors arguably guilty? For each crime, be sure to discuss arguments for and against liability, and possible defenses, and the likely outcome of prosecution. Be sure to use relevant class discussion, statutes and case law throughout your answer.
Part II
Answer one (1) of the following three questions and support your answer with case and statutory material discussing the purposes and function of law as well as the reasoning for punishment.
I – Conspiracy
What problems are associated with the doctrine and its use by prosecutors, juries and judges? Should conspirators be liable for substantive acts that they do not personally commit? Compare and contrast the Federal crime versus the requirements in New York State. Which rule is more consistent with traditional notions of culpability? Is conspiracy necessary despite the jurisprudential concerns with the crime?
II – Felony Murder
What jurisprudential problems are associated with felony murder? Would you alter the New York statute, eliminate it, or leave it alone? Using jurisprudential reasoning explain whether felony murder is more or less acceptable when the death penalty attaches to the crime.
III – Exculpation
Is the New York formulation of the “insanity” defense an adequate response to our understanding of the human mind? Under the New York defense are we punishing appropriately for “voluntary acts” and “mens rea”? Should insanity be an affirmative defense or should the prosecution maintain the burden of proof on sanity?
Part III
Explain what, if any impact this class has had on your ideas and understanding of crime and punishment. Have your views of punishment been changed? Have your views of punishment been strengthened? Does our system reach the goals it is designed to obtain? Is there a better alternative? Provide your opinion with reference to relevant course materials which support it.
