How to Solve Any Criminal Law Procedures Issues?

Requirement

this assignment is on criminal law. only 1 homicide case .. I want it to be like a bar exam answer using the IRAC method. so no need for any citations or to mention any relevant cases. also, no need to solve any criminal law procedures' issues.

Issue 

Doug was heavily drunk and shot Tom dead with his pistol when the latter furiously went to his apartment because the former hurt his girlfriend’s leg by throwing out a bottle through his window. He fled but stopped by the security personnel of a bus company because the pistol that he was carrying was of the same caliber, which is believed to have been used in homicide. He was finally arrested and charged with murder. So, would he be convicted of first degree murder or any lesser offences?

Solution

Rule 

The first degree murders generally demand harshest punishments with regards to any crime. However, sentencing can vary from state to state. As for the current case, it is important to understand which laws were violated by Doug. Because of the applicability of the punitive measures, we have to first find out whether the elements of first degree murder were present or not. The first element that is conspicuous in first degree murders is intent, which refers to the willfulness for ending a human life. Sometimes, an individual is forced due to certain circumstances to kill another person, however, showing a depraved indifference towards human life could also qualify as a murder of the first degree. Secondly, deliberation and premeditation form the basis for the determination of punishment. It is looked that whether the perpetrator had contemplated at length and devised a plan for the murder. The point is these two elements should occur well before the incident not at the time of the killing. Almost all the law books maintain that the criminals of first degree murder must have possessed a feeling of malice. It is basically an evil disposition as well as a complete indifference to the human life. Under Section 1 of 565. 020, a person is said to have committed a first degree murder if he or she deliberately and knowingly kills someone after a proper deliberation regarding the matter. This offense is considered as a Class A felony and it the perpetrator is 18 or more than 18 years of age, he could be awarded a death penalty or life imprisonment without any ground for probation or parole.

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Doug was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon while trying to travel through a bus. Concealment in such cases entails that usually the weapon is not viewed by anyone while the person is walking through a street. This situation creates a necessary risk of intentional and accidental shootings. However, carrying a weapon is not enough for any person to get punished, so the elements that are looked for in terms of establishing a guilt are - Age and ability requirements, residency, application, safety training and criminal background. The punishments that are awarded for carrying a concealed weapon are fines, jail and probation.
Finally, there is also an issue of intoxication. As per the facts, the defendant was heavily intoxicated during the incident of crime. Under Modal Penal Code (MPC), any form of intoxication can only constitute to defense to a crime, if it eliminates the primary elements of crime like intent. MPC recommends that for intoxication to be overlooked during a crime, the criminal defendant should have to prove the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct and assert his conduct towards the necessity of the law.

Application

In the present scenario, the sequence of the events were such that one incident led to the other. While Doug was sitting at home, he was drinking and heavily intoxicated. However, it is possible that the intoxication can render a deprived mental capacity that is used to form an intent required by law in order to establish a conviction. Perpetrators who are accused of crimes have often presented the arguments on the narrative that they can’t be held fully responsible for the actions they committed due to the fact that they were not in complete control of themselves because of intoxication. In most of the offences, the prosecutors are required to prove an element of general intent to commit a crime. That is, the defendant intentionally did something that is strictly prohibited by the law. 

It is quite clear that Doug was beyond a state of sanity and sensibility. However, he still remembered that he had a pistol and used it the way it is used so that an immediate killing could take place. So, there was a visible criminality on the part of Doug even if he was drunk. Moreover, it is not suffice to use intoxication as an excuse for a criminal conduct. This fact could be put like this way – if a drunk person happens to fire a pistol on a new year’s eve and somebody gets killed. He might not have planned to intentionally kill the person or he might not have known the person or might not have known the person. But it can be said that the perpetrator, Doug in this case, has a general intent to break the law and he murdered Tom with a general intent of breaking the law. Therefore, as per the law, he could be charged with manslaughter.

The next situation is he was carrying a pistol and apprehended on account of that. As per the law, a carried weapon also moves with the person possessing it. So, the difficulty with the weapon is that while on the move, the person comes across different locations and situations thus creating possibilities all the time for its use. Whenever, the weapon is concealed by a person, he does not allow others to know about its possession and therefore, the possible victims are not able to defend themselves because no one can expect these things could happen to them suddenly. The laws regarding concealed weapons limit the kind of weapon prohibited, which include knives, firearm and explosives. So, in Doug’s case, the weapon was the one with a caliber of carrying out a homicide. Moreover, the ballistics tests that were conductedlater on proved that it was the same pistol that killed Tom. So, there remains no doubt in the fact that Doug possessed a concealed weapon and he killed Tom with it thereby making him a perpetrator of first degree murder. 
Finally, the way Tom entered into the house of Doug was certainly not the suggestive of friendly intentions on the part of Tom either. So, this fact can provide an escape route for Doug as he saw Tom coming forcefully towards him with his tight fists. The counsels for the defendant can argue that what Doug did was an act of self-defense and it happened in the heat of the moment. However, this is a weak argument that he did all of that in a self-defense. He saw Tom with his closed fists, which means the most he could do was hit him or struck him down provided he had apparently no weapon with him that could have drove him to take the step of killing him. Under no circumstances, should anyone can kill others on the premise that they could be hit by blowing a punch. Moreover, there was also a possibility of solving the matter by striking a conversation because after all he did not deliberately hit Tom’s girlfriend. Hence, the self-defense is no escape for Doug and he should still be charged for the first degree murder.

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Conclusion

By going through the case and analyzing it bit by bit, applying relevant laws and observing all the facts of the case, we found that Doug violated different laws and murdered Tom with a first degree. He was a runaway criminal, which proves his guilt a step further. Therefore, he can be charged for first degree murder and can be awarded a death penalty or life imprisonment. 

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