Tag: court

Goldilocks is a Hardened Criminal

jared315Leave a comment

In my Law and Society class, we have a mock trial in which we try to prosecute somebody for some crime. This mock trial happens to be the prosecution of Goldilocks, and I must say Goldilocks does not seem innocent in any way. Goldilocks broke into the house of three bears and decided to ransack the place. She ate all of their food, sat in and broke their rocking chairs, slept in their beds, and jumped through the bear’s window to run away, all throughout a pandemic. Despite being the age of 7, Goldilocks comprehends that what she had done was wrong, otherwise, why would she run? Under the basis of Goldilocks understanding her crimes, she would be tried as a minor, rather than her being pardoned due to infancy. Goldilocks will be facing time, with charges such as Vandalism, Larceny, and Burglary. I believe Goldilocks should rot in prison until the day she dies. Dirty criminals like her have no right to live among law-abiding citizens.

The Goldilocks Effect and How to Harness Social Influence | First Round Review
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Defective Defense?

mushuooLeave a comment

52 years old, Kimberly Kreis of Santa Barbara has just been sentenced to one year in jail, three years of probation, and 250 hours of community service.

For what?

Killing three youngsters: Danielle Murillo, 17, Brian Lopez, 20, and Jessica Leffew, 17, in April of 2014 in a fatal car crash on the 101 freeway.

Erik August, the driver, had fallen asleep at the wheel, crashing his car with Ms. Murillo, Mr. Lopez, and Ms. Leffew all inside. The car flew into the railing, flipped over, and slid, coming to a stop still on the freeway.

All passengers were unharmed at this point.

Whilst attempting to escape the vehicle, under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine, Ms. Kreis flew full force into their car.

This killed Ms. Murillo, Mr. Lopez, and Ms. Leffew in a matter of seconds and ultimately put Mr. August in a coma for a month. With serious injuries, he woke to months of physical therapy and mental and emotional pain from this accident for the rest of his life.

Ms.Kreis had a few scratches and walked away from the crash.

Although the already crashed car “could have” been avoided by Ms. Kreis, she had more than the legal limit of blood alcohol content to be operating a vehicle, and was on a high dosage of methamphetamine.

Ms. Kreis has a strong history of drug abuse arrests and charges, multiple DUI’s, and pleaded “not guilty”, but was prosecuted for felony charges of possession of a controlled substance in October of 2013.

The defense attorney claimed there was probably no way she could have avoided the already crashed car sitting on the highway.

This got her sentence reduced astronomically.

Accidents like this get me ticking for weeks.

Was this all Ms. Kreis’ fault?

Could the accident have been avoided?

If Ms. Kreis was not on drugs and had ingested alcohol would she have have hit the stopped car?

Photo Credit: http://www.noozhawk.com

We will never know.

Healthcare Hell

therightliberalLeave a comment

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that the Supreme Court is currently deciding if “Obamacare” is constitutional.

Now let me say this, I am not sure about the mandate. I get the point and I also see why people would be upset.

However, for those who say that the government is making a mistake by creating a healthcare system where people with pre-existing conditions can still get coverage, shut up.

Although young, I have seen exactly the problems behind our current system. Just yesterday I was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

But because my family’s coverage is about to run out, I could not schedule appointments because we will run out of coverage and chances are I won’t be able to be put on a plan. This worries my parents far more than me, but it is a valid concern.

I consider myself lucky, I do not have a disease that is life threatening or controls my life. But for those who do, who is to say that they do not deserve coverage?

They are citizens of our nation, just like a healthy person, and as part of our society they deserve care they can afford.

You can call it a socialist program or whatever you want, the fact of the matter is that it is what people need. People need coverage so they can survive without massive amounts of debt and massive fears every day.

It is worth the tax increase we could see, and it is worth being potentially mandated to have health care. And let’s be honest here, the people trying to get rid of the mandate feel as though they should be able to turn it down because they have health care.

Taxes happen and lead to the society we have today so stop complaining. You want to live in this great country? It will cost you. Just like living in Beverly Hills, there is a price. But there is also a reason people are willing to pay the price.

I have no idea what the Supreme Court will decide but I urge them to make the right choice. Rule what you want as far as the mandate but please see that we need to get rid of the rejections relating to pre-existing conditions.

Lets get this done and make a better country, giving people support that they need. Lets make a better and stronger society and keep building our country.

My First Mock Trial

rangerthecatLeave a comment

On Thursday in my Law and Society class, my class had our first mock trial. We were introduced to the idea of it the week before, and were given a whole packet of information about the case and the testimonies of witnesses. We read over it all to get a better understanding of the case.

The basic outline of the case was playing off the story Hansel and Gretel.

In this incident, they walked into a Gingerbread House shop, owned by Ms. Crueller, with the hopes of finding a job. But then, they broke some gingerbread houses, and were was a misunderstanding where Ms. Crueller ended up in her hot oven with burns on her arms, and the children ran away. Ms. Crueller pressed charges on these children, including aggravated battery, criminal mischeif, and petit theft.

We were broken into teams of the defense and prosecution; I was on the side of the defense, and was acting as an attorney. I gave the opening statement, and also cross examined the prosecution’s witnesses. There were 2 other attorneys on my team, one of which did direct questions to our witnesses, and another that did more cross examination and the closing argument. There were also 3 people acting as the witnesses, Hansel and Gretel Schmidt, and also a local shop owner that knew Ms. Crueller and met Hansel and Gretel, and thought they were good kids.

I was so intimidated in the beginning – I absolutely hate public speaking. It made it much worse, also, after the opposing team’s attorney gave their opening statement. It was much longer than mine, and he was much more confident. But I did put in hard work and effort on my own statement, and I knew it wasn’t bad in the slightest. So, I gave my opening statement, and the the questioning began.

The part I really enjoyed was the cross examination. The fact that I could, in a sense, prove my points without any cooperation from the other side was very pleasing. Also, there were many points brought up in the prosecution’s direct questioning that sparked questions of my own, and ended up helping me in my questioning and proving my client’s innocence.

There was one HUGE problem that occurred, though. A witness on my team decided to lie, and made a false statement that, in the end, lead him to incriminate himself. Despite that one mishap, everyone preformed so well, and it was a really great first mock trial. To be honest, I was impressed with my own performance, and the performance of the others on my team.

In the end, the jury that we had came to the verdict of not guilty on the charges of aggravated assault and criminal mischief, but guilty of petit theft. Which, in my book, is nothing to complain about. We did a much better job of defending than I thought we would.

Never though I’d say it, but I am SO extremely excited for the next mock trial, and beyond that, our FINAL mock trial even more. Our first one was such a success, and I can only imagine what we are going to be like on at the end of the year, when we’ve had even more practice.