CJL2100: Unit II

Chapter Four

1) What is the purpose of requiring proof of an overt act in a criminal conspiracy charge? Why doesn’t the federal statute forbidding drug conspiracies have such a requirement?

2) Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui86dvfkEIw

Should spouses be liable for failing to report crimes of their spouse?

Why or Why not?

3) Assume that the defendant is riding in a car being driven by a person who is clearly intoxicated. Nonetheless, the defendant urges the driver to exceed the speed limit and ignore traffic signs. The driver does so, and smashes the car into a building, injuring another passenger. Can the defendant be charged, under accomplice liability, for driving while intoxicated? Vehicular assault (the auto accident)? See People v. Childress, 363 P.3d 155 (Colo. 2015) What is the mental state requirement in Colorado for conviction or driving while intoxicated? Vehicular assault, while intoxicated? What is the mental state requirement for accomplice liability?

4) Allen, a volunteer fire fighter in Vermont, and some of his other fire fighters, believed the lack of fire calls was “like kind of getting boring.” So, they decided to set some fires in uninhabited grasslands, so they could respond to a fire call at the fire station. Some of the fires were set in federally owned park lands. Allen was charged and convicted of conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1855, which makes it a crime to “willfully” sets on fire timber or grass on any land owned or managed by the United States. Allen claims the prosecution failed to prove he knew the grassland was owned by the United States. Should his conviction be reversed? United States v. Allen, 788 F.3d 61 (2nd Cir. 2015).

Chapter Seven

5) Tina spent the day shopping at the mall. She went to the food court for lunch and set all of her packages on the floor next to her table. As she was leaving Tina picked up all of the packages and mistakenly took a package that belonged to the woman at the next table. If charged with theft what is Tina’s best defense? How might she prove that taking the other woman’s package was a mistake?

6) http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/05/involuntary_intoxication_defen.html

Why was the involuntary intoxication defense unsuccessful in this case? Under what different circumstances might have the involuntary intoxication defense been successful?

7) The defendant was required under Kentucky law to register as a convicted sex offender. The registration statute stated that a registrant must register a new address before moving from the current address. The state police are required to send a change of address registration form to persons required to register every 90 days. When the defendant moved a few miles from his parents, where he was registered as residing, to start work on a new job, he did not send a registration notice to the local parole office as required. When, two months later, he was discovered residing at his new residence (his girlfriend’s house) he was charged with violation of the registration law, which makes it a crime to “knowingly” fail to register a new address. Defendant states as his defense that he thought he was supposed to wait for the next address verification to be sent to him, and only then register at his new address. Is this a good defense? Should it be? See Lawson v. Com., 425 S.W.3d 912 (Ky. App. 2014)