CRIMINAL LAW OUTLINE
I. Introduction
A. Criminal Jury
1. When does one have a constitutional right to a jury trial?
a. Duncan v. Louisiana (42)
i. Facts: While driving appellant saw two of his younger cousins on the side of the road talking to four white boys. Knowing that the two boys had problems of racial incidents at their new school, appellant pulled over car and got out of his to talk to the boys. The appellant encouraged his cousins to “break off the encounter and enter his car”. When the appellant was about to enter his car (for the purpose of driving away) the appellant supposedly slapped (merely touched) Herman Landry on the elbow, according to the four white boys testimony. The appellant was found guilty of simple battery. Louisiana law says that a simple battery is a misdemeanor and it is punishable by a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment and a $300 fine. The appellant sought a jury trial but was denied and sentence to serve 60 days in jail and pay $150 fine.
ii. Holding: State’s denial of trial by jury violates appellant’s 6th Amendment right “in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to an impartial jury of the state” which is secured by the 14th Amendment
iii. Reasoning:
– Purpose of Trial by Jury
o Prevent oppression by Government
o Further protection against arbitrary action
– Counters to opposition of jury trial
o Incapability of juries to understand and make sound decisions
§ Studied cases prove otherwise
§ Cases were discrepancy between judge and jury are good
o Holding may cast doubt on the integrity of every trial conducted without a jury
§ No constitutional doubts
o Serious trials v. petty crimes
§ Crime punishable by 2 years in serious
b. Baldwin (46) – when does one have right to trial by jury?
i. No offense may be deemed petty were imprisonment for more than 6 months is authorized
ii. Even if maximum authorized period of confinement is 6 months or less, if any additional statutory penalties (including fines) are so severe that they clearly reflect a legislative determination that the offense in question is serious
iii. Therefore includes all felony and many misdemeanor prosecutions
2. Juries
i. Size anywhere from 6-12
ii. Must represent a fair cross-section of the community
a. 6th amendment right is violated if large, distinctive groups of persons, such as women, racial minorities or adherents of a specific major religion, are systematically and unjustifiably excluded from the jury pool
iii. Decision can be non-unanimous as long as vote to convict represents a substantial majority of the jurors
3. Why have criminal juries?
a. Education Value
i. Teaches people by having them serve
b. Pressure to maintain simplicity of law
i. People must know the law in order to obey it
c. Individualizing Justice
i. Implemented by: police, prosecutors, judges, chief executives
d. Participation
i. Legitimacies process
4. Jury Nullification
a. What is it?
i. Ability of juror to rule on case anyway sees fit
ii. Two factors make nullification possible
1) Juries can return general verdicts without explaining verdict
2) 5th amendment provides that no person shall be subject for same offense twice
b. Is it good?
i. Pros
1) In order to protect against governmental oppression
2) Common sense judgment of lay people
3) Community’s safeguard against morally unjust or socially undesirable criminal convictions that inflexible judges might impose
ii. Cons
1) Malignant nullification
2) Casts aside basic belief that only elected representatives may determine what is a crime and what isn’t
c. United States v. Dougherty
i. Trial judge:
1) Refused to instruct jury of its right to acquit without regard to the law and evidence
2) Refused to permit appellants to argue this issue to jury
ii. Court believed jury nullification power was desirable as long as it wasn’t exercised frequently
d. In criminal case, judge can take case away from jury and just dismiss it
e. Judge can’t direct verdict of guilty in criminal case
f. Why set aside a jury verdict of guilty?
i. Procedural irregularity
ii. Objections to jury instructions
iii. Jury must make an evidentiary ruling and judge won’t admit of evidence
iv. Judge should have granted judgment notwithstanding verdict but no reasonable jury could have made decision based on limited evidence
g. Ways judge may impede nullification
i. Not select certain jurors (57)
ii. Judges’ instructions to jury are that must follow law contained in instructions
– Sometimes courts refuse to instruct jury
– Sometimes courts in some sense lie to jury
iii. Control defense lawyers and refuse to allow their arguing for referring to nullification
iv. Remove jurors during deliberation if display unwillingness to follow law
v. Groups that seek to inform jurors of their power can be charged with crimes (influencing jurors in deliberation)
B. Sentencing
1. Methods to control judge’s power
a. Mandate specified punishments
b. Grading
c. Establish administrative agencies to promulgate guidelines channeling choice of sentence in particular cases
d. Provided appellate review of trial court sentencing
2. Sentence Length & Factors to consider
a. General Deterrence
i. Not for the actual person that committed the crime
ii. Defendant is punished to convince the general community to forego criminal conduct in the future
iii. Defendant is merely means to desired end
iv. Model Penal Code 1.02(2)authorizes general deterrence as one basic
in committee reports or congressional debates
iii. Holding served objective that criminal statutes must provide a fair warning and notice to people
iv. Differs from Smith rule where in case of tiebreaker must rule in favor of the defendant
b. United States v. Dauray- court applied rule of lenity in case of defendant in possession of 13 unbound pornographic pictures of children
i. When a statute is unclear or ambiguous, court’s primary function is to ascertain the intent of the legislature that enacted the law by all appropriate means
1) Plain meaning reference
a) no clear definition from congress on particular phrases
b) dictionary definitions support both parties
2) Canons of construction
c) Lists and other associated terms, statutory structure, statutory amendment, and avoiding absurdity are of no assistance
3) Legislative History
d) Sheds no light on situations
ii. Rule of lenity
1) Situations in which a reasonable doubt persists about a statute’s intended scope even after resort to the language and structure, legislative history, and motivating policies of the statute
2) In criminal prosecutions, ambiguities in the statute must be resolved in the defendant’s favor
a) Can operate to block judicial speculation about the significance of context and legislative intent and requires narrowest plausible interpretation
b) Other version as a last resort (tie-breaker)
c) Prevents a court from inadvertently enlarging the scope of a criminal statute though its interpretive powers
c. Keeler v. Superior Court – when a statute contains a common law term, the presumption is that such a term retains its common law meaning, absent a statutory definition to the contrary
i. K intentionally struck wife in her abdomen in order to kill fetus. The fetus was delivered stillborn. K was prosecuted for murder.
1) Murder was defined by statute, as at common law, as the unlawful killing of a human being, with malice aforethought
ii. Court held that the murder of a fetus wasn’t the same as murder of a human being as was necessary to be convicted under penal code 187
1) Court sought to identify legislative intent by looking to the common law of 1850, the year the murder statute was enacted
