If a person being accused of a crime has a legitimate reason for committing the act then justification can be used as a defense in a prosecution for a criminal offense. A person is not criminally liable when their offense is justified. Examples of justification defenses include self-defense, defense of others, defense of necessity, and mistake of fact. Justification defenses are fact-driven that require the jury to decide whether the defendant 's actions were (Davenport, p 244)
Self-defense
A legitimate defense for the use of force to protect oneself from imminent bodily hand or death at the hands of an aggressor is self-defense. It is our right to protect ourselves, innocent people, and their property from harm of other people. (Davenport, p 244). In Moran v. Ohio, a wife asserted that she acted in self-defense, as a result of the repeated and brutal beatings by her husband.
Defense of others. Another Common Law defense used is the defense of others. It is considered justified when otherwise a criminal act is done to save someone other than themselves from harm. For this to apply, no special relationship is necessary between the defendant and the intended victim. This defense is very similar to Self-defense. (Davenport, p 245).
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When a person in good faith relies on an interpretation of law from a person charged with administering the law, it is considered mistake of law. It also can be used if the law recently changes and a person unknowingly follows the guidelines from a government official prior to the law changing. (Davenport, p 250). This defense was used in the case of United States v. Barker, 15 U.S. 395, 395(1817). (1976). Two CIA agents accused of violating with conspiracy to violate the fourth amendment rights of Dr. Fielding by unlawfully entering and searching his office. They stated the defense of mistake of law claiming that a career CIA agent, Howard Hunt, said they were working for an organization about the FBI and
The use of reasonable force to protect oneself or members of the family from bodily harm from the attack of an aggressor, if defender has reason to believe He/She/is/are in danger. Self-defense is a common defense by a person accused of assault battery
Different countries have been known to deal with crime in different ways, some believe that we (Americans) should deal with criminals in a more serious and physical manner. In the article “Rough Justice A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate About Crime and Punishment” by Alejandro Reyes, it talks about how we should have more severe and physical punishment inside and outside of the U.S. After a teenage boy vandalizes a car in singapore. While in the editorial “Time to Assert American Values,” the writer attempts to persuade us and into thinking that the teenage boy, Michael Fey should not have been caned after vandalizing a car. After carefully analyzing the two texts, the reader realizes that the article “Rough Justice” has the
In 1893, Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii gave up her throne to the United States of America. About five years after in 1898, Hawaii was officially annexed and became a part of the U.S.A. During this time, the Hawaiian people were bitter and mournful as they watched the foreigners slowly take over their kingdom. Many foreigners came to Hawaii to achieve one goal, to increase the power of foreigners and decrease the power of Native Hawaiians. The kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown with the use of force and was unethically taken. Although Hawaii received benefits that were mainly in their economy, it still does not make up for the wrongful taking of the Hawaiian kingdom.
States that have stand-your ground laws remove a common law requirement to retreat if a person is able to do so before using reasonable force outside of one’s home (Randall and DeBoer). This allows individuals in states with these laws to use force in self-defense when there is a reasonable belief of a threat (Randall and DeBoer). Under certain circumstances, such as a threat of imminent serious bodily harm or death, deadly force is considered reasonable under stand your ground laws (Randall and DeBoer). In Florida the stand-your ground law states “a person has the right to stand his or her ground if he or she (1) reasonably believes it is necessary to d...
Many students who are enrolled in FFA are already heading in the right direction to a bright future. FFA has many career benefits within the program. Any of the career development events (CDE’s) have something that will tie to a career in agriculture or to a career of other sorts. According to the National FFA Organization, “FFA members embrace concepts taught in agricultural science classrooms nationwide, build valuable skills through hands-on experiential learning and each year demonstrate their proficiency in competitions based on real-world agricultural skills”(“Statistics”). There are so many careers that tie into FFA, and many of them have to do with agriculture. Not every career that has to do with agriculture is about farming. There are so many different aspects of the agriculture industry that many people never think twice about. Most people are not interested in agriculture because they think it is just about farming or
There is so much that can be learned from the past. Especially from an event that was as catastrophic as this one. How does one person gain such a grip on so many people? How was he able to influence them to change their entire life’s to conform to what he wanted. Somehow he was able to get them to move to a completely new place and create a world all their (his) own. How does one person convince and force so many people that it was time for their life to end? How does he force them to kill themselves? So many questions that are still being answered to this day. There are plenty of movies and research done on this event but there is still a lot to learn.
The definition of grit is simple; it means being passionate about long term goals, and showing stamina to pursue them, but should students in public schools have a class dedicated to a grit-focused curriculum? This has become a major topic of discussion among teachers and mentors. Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, claims grit is not a fixed quality but one that can be developed. Many disagree with her statement. Grit is something everyone all have within themselves, but some just do not utilize this characteristic as often or as well as others. Grit is a puzzling concept. Duckworth has had an obsession with grit for over a decade. Her obsession started when she visited West Point,
In the United States the cold-blooded murder of one citizen to another is considered cruel, psychopathic, and illegal. The thought of murdering a fellow human being is, justifiably, discriminated against and shunned. Since murder is officially condemned wrong what causes one to believe that in the case of war, murder on a large scale, that this happening can be considered acceptable, at some points cheered on even. If murder is not justifiable, then war is not justifiable; but in the case when the lesser evil must dominate the greater evil in order to maintain peace, then this scenario of war may be considered more just than any alternative.
The four criminal law elements of self-defense are nonaggressor, necessity, proportionality, and reasonable belief. Nonaggressor is when the defender did not in any way provoke or stray an attack. When it comes to self-defense it is only available when it comes to unprovoked attacks. If one provokes someone they cannot use self-defense to defend themselves from the attack because they provoked it. However there is one exception and that is the withdrawal exception. The withdrawal exception is when the initial aggressor withdrawals completely from the attack they provoked they can defend themselves against their initial victims. An example of nonaggressor self-defense is Melody hanging out at the bar by herself and Samantha comes up to her trying
For example, according to Dara lind “Officer’s aren’t supposed to shoot to kill. They’re supposed to do whatever is necessary to disable the threat”(Lind). Whenever an officer gets caught up in a difficult situation where deadly force is needed for the most part officers do shoot to kill because they feel like there life is in danger themselves. Yes like they said they are supposed to do whatever is necessary so therefore if shooting to kill someone is necessary to them then for police officers it is the right thing to do. But in reality in some occasions deadly force by a cop resulting in someone’s death is not needed and there should be other alternatives to handle difficult problems like that. In addition, “Usually, the point from where the officer believes he has to use deadly force to the point where he uses deadly force -- where he pulls
For example, in Jacksonville, Florida, Jordan Davis, another unarmed teenager was killed by Michael Dunn. Davis and other teenagers were riding in a SUV with music blasting from the vehicle, when Dunn pulled up alongside of them and asked them to turn the music down . Words was exchanging between the two parties, and Dunn fired 8 to 9 shots into the SUV where he fatally shot Davis. Dunn was arrested and charged with first degree murder. Dunn claimed he fired in self-defense and invoked the “Stand Your Ground law” as his defense. ...
If a person don’t carry a concealed weapon, how will they be able to protect themselves and their precious family from vicious criminals? Shall issue states are states that citizens may apply and be considered by the state for a gun permit which is also known as concealed carry. John R. Lott, is an economist and has received his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA. He claimed "shall-issue" concealed carry laws reduced murders by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7%, and robbery by 3%, according to a 2000 analysis of FBI crime data” (Lott, John R.) This refers to how concealed carry reduces crime and information was reported by the FBI compared to the other states that don’t allow concealed carry. This quote shows real evidence on how guns
Have you ever felt stuck? Wherever you are, it’s the absolute last place you want to be. In the book Into the Wild, Chris McCandless feels stuck just like the average everyday person may feel. Chris finds his escape plan to the situation and feels he will free himself by going off to the wild. I agree with the author that Chris McCandless wasn’t a crazy person, a sociopath, or an outcast because he got along with many people very well, but he did seem somewhat incompetent, even though he survived for quite some time.
Self-defense is not something that should be taken lightly. Its dictionary definition is, “the act of defending one's person when physically
A defence in criminal law arises when conditions exist to negate specific elements of the crime: the actus reus when actions are involuntary, the mens rea when the defendant is unaware of the significance of their conduct, or both. These defences will mitigate or eliminate liability from a criminal offence. Insanity, automatism and diminished responsibility are examples of said defences. They each share characteristics but can be distinguished in their scope and application.