Criminal Defenses Hypos
Presented below are several case descriptions. If you were a defense attorney asked to take each of these cases, what would you recommend as the best defense, and why?
How successful do you think the defenses might be? What issues/ problems might there be with the defenses?
1. Art Kapser and John Gelbor were good friends and coworkers. After work, Art and John went bowling. After John picked up a spare in the seventh frame, the two got into an argument on proper scoring of a spare. John punched Art in the face, knocking him to the floor, and screamed, “If you don’t shut up, I will kill you.” Art left the bowling alley but returned with a .38-caliber revolver and shot John in the back, killing him instantly. Art was charged with murder. What could Art use as a defense?
2. What if the same situation as above, except when Art returned John started running at him saying “I’m going to kill you…”
3. Kellie Koser attended a college party. One of the partygoers handed her a beer. She drank it, although she did not know that the beer contained a sedative. She got tired quickly and decided to drive home. She fell asleep at the wheel and killed a bicyclist. She was charged with manslaughter. What could Kellie use as a defense?
4. When Marnee Diaz lost her job, she couldn’t keep up with her bills. In order to put food on the table, she began robbing banks. What would you recommend as a defense?
5. Carol Smith is addicted to crack but enrolled herself in a drug-treatment program to control her addiction. An undercover police officer joined the same program to get information about drug suppliers. He got friendly with Ms. Smith and asked her to buy him some crack. She refused on four occasions. On the fifth occasion, however, she brought him one rock of crack cocaine. She was arrested for drug possession. What defense would you recommend?
6. A mother assists her boyfriend in committing a burglary after he threatens to kill her children if she refuses to do so.
7. Mary Bulger hires three men to physically remove her daughter from the residence on the property of a religious cult. The daughter had been a cult member for several months and Mary wanted to get her daughter away from the cult’s influence.
8. A 13 year old girl finds a gun in his parent’s bedside table. She takes the gun to school and shoots a fellow student who had been taunting her for weeks.
9. A woman, thinking her divorce was final, marries another person, thereby committing bigamy.
- A man with a history of mental illness pushes a woman in front of an oncoming subway train, killing her instantly.
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