LAW 293 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Jury Nullification, Prima Facie, Deterrence Theory
victim driven, police start and then find victims later.
List steps of general Criminal Process (in order) (8)
Complaint, Investigation, Arrest, Arraignment, Indictment (Preliminary Hearing or Grand Jury), Trial,
Sentencing, Appeal.
Prima facie
Legally sufficient for each element.
Categories of Material Elements (5)
Conduct, Mental state, Results, Causation or link between conduct and results, Attendant Circumstances
Jury Nullification (Def. 1) and State v. Ragland (1)
Jury Nullification is the power of the jury to ignore the elements, burden and find for the Defendant.
State v. Ragland said that the Jury Nullification was a power of the jury, but that the Defendant did not
have a right to it.
Examples of Jury Nullification (3)
Jury is protesting for social reasons, Jury disagrees with the statute, Jury believes person did it but
doesn't deserve to be punished.
Why is Jury Nullification bad for legal system? (2)
Can be arbitrary, can lead to inequality of enforcement.
Burdens of Proof (least to greatest) (5)
Reasonable Suspicion, Probable Cause, Preponderance of the Evidence, Clear and Convincing Evidence,
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.
Specific Deterrence
Jail the specific criminal so that they do not reoffend when they leave jail.
General Deterrence
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Send message to others by them seeing what happened to the criminal.
Incapacitation
If criminal is in jail he cannot harm others.
Rehabilitation
Return offender as a functioning member of society.
Retributivism definition, purpose and its criticism of general deterrence. (3)
Offenders deserve to suffer for what they have done. Transforms private vengeance into legitimate
punishment. Using the individual for a general deterrence violates their moral dignity.
Expressivism
Allows society to express disapproval of the criminal conduct.
US v. Brewer (Old couple who defrauded the Gov't) (Why no jail time?) (5)
Old and does not deserve to die in prison, very costly due to medical issues, Deterrence does not work,
they will be incapacitated by taking their money, the most important rehabilitation here is medical care.
General federal goals of sentencing (4)
Retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation.
US v. Madoff (Why harsh sentence) (6)
Fraud is staggering, innocent people defrauded, Madoff enriched himself, has not been helpful to
investigation, tried to save money for his family, no support letters
Madoff Symbolism (3)
Send messages that crimes were very evil, send message that similar people will get punished severely,
restore trust in financial system.
Hard-to-detect crimes re: deterrence
Harsher penalties needed for crimes harder to detect so risk is multiplied for potential criminal.
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Sentencing Guidelines rationale (2)
get rid of indeterminate sentencing, gets rid of discrepancies between judges.
Information - definition
Charging instrument for misdemeanor.
Indictment - definition
Charging instrument for felony
General limits on deterrence theory (3)
immoral to punish the innocent, cruel and unusual punishment is unconstitutional, punishment should
be proportional to the crime.
Fair notice for criminals
Opportunity to conform behavior to the requirements of the law.
Principle of Legality requirements re: statute (4)
written, precise, public, existing statute prohibiting conduct
Principle of Legality Overview
Defendants should only be condemned if they had fair warning and disobeyed it anyway.
Written Statute Requirement, what is it, how was it done in the past?
Criminal conduct must be proscribed in a written statute. In the past Judges punished for common law
crimes defined through decisions.
Principle against retroactivity, what it is and why?
Statute must exist before crime is committed. Defendant must be given chance to conform behavior.
Why do we look at Common Law to define Statutes, idea? reason?
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Document Summary
Victim driven, police start and then find victims later. List steps of general criminal process (in order) (8) Complaint, investigation, arrest, arraignment, indictment (preliminary hearing or grand jury), trial, Conduct, mental state, results, causation or link between conduct and results, attendant circumstances. Jury nullification is the power of the jury to ignore the elements, burden and find for the defendant. State v. ragland said that the jury nullification was a power of the jury, but that the defendant did not have a right to it. Jury is protesting for social reasons, jury disagrees with the statute, jury believes person did it but doesn"t deserve to be punished. Why is jury nullification bad for legal system? (2) Can be arbitrary, can lead to inequality of enforcement. Reasonable suspicion, probable cause, preponderance of the evidence, clear and convincing evidence, Jail the specific criminal so that they do not reoffend when they leave jail.
