The Felony Murder Law of Colorado states that a person is guilty of first degree murder if he or she participates in, or is fleeing from, some other crime and a death results, intended or not2. This statute is the reason a 21 year old Colorado resident, Lisl Auman, was sentenced to life in prison without parole at the Colorado Women's Correctional Facility3. This case has drawn national attention and while appealing her conviction, has gained support from actors Sean Penn, Benecio Del Torro and Johnny Depp and the late writer Hunter S. Thompson.
Lisl Auman was convicted of felony murder for her part in an alleged burglary that resulted in the death of a Denver police officer on November 12, 19972. One week before the alleged burglary in Buffalo Creek, Colorado, Auman learned that her boyfriend, Shawn Cheever, decided to end the relationship. Auman still had a few possessions that remained at her ex-boyfriends residence that she wished to obtain. The night of November 11, 1997, Auman and her close friend Demetria Soriano, were at Soriano's apartment with her boyfriend, Dion Gerze, and his friends, Matthew Jaehnig and Stephen Duprey2. Claiming Cheever had mistreated her, Auman convinced her new friends to help her retrieve some of her belongings from Cheever's residence2.
At noon of the alleged day of the burglary, the group headed to Cheever's apartment and Auman rode alone with Jaehnig in his later found to be stolen Trans Am2. From the passenger's seat, a shotgun and two assault rifles were visible in the car. Cheever was at work during the alleged burglary, so bolt cutters were used to gain access to his residence. Auman's items were removed from the residence, along with some of Cheever's personal property. As ...
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...eversed and remanded back to the trial courts. One drawback to the court systems that is evident in this case is the length of time required to reach the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decision occurred almost seven years after the trial started, only to be sent back to the trial process.
Bibliography
1) Beatty, Jeffery and Samuelson, Susan. Legal Environment, 2nd Ed. Thomson: Southwestern
West, 2005.
2) Colorado Supreme Court Ruling. Retrieved on March 27, 2005 from
http://www.lisl.com/caseupdate.htm
3) Kass, Jeff. Weighing the Scales of Justice. The Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved on March
27, 2005 from
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_148006,00.html
...arately from the length of the delay, the prejudice towards the accused can be inferred from the length of the delay as established in R. v. Morin. Examining the Morin guidelines made the decision and since the guidelines set out an 8 to 10 month institutional delay and in this case the court deemed that the Crown was responsible for 23 months of delay. The court failed to justify the reason for the 23-month delay and since it exceeded the Morin guidelines the court concluded that the delay was unreasonable and the accused’s right under Section 11(b) of the Charter has been violated and the trial within a reasonable time was infringed and negated.
Upon her conviction, Mapp appealed the case to the Court of Appeals, Eighth Judicial Circuit, but the cour...
One tragic decision in October of 2012 changed the lives of 5 young men forever. One of these young men, Danzele Johnson, lost his life that day; the other four have been convicted of his murder. These young men were committing a felony at the time of his death and they are being held accountable for his death under the felony murder rule. The charge carries lengthy sentences for all four men, between 45 and 55 years. In the words of Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill, “If you start a fire your responsible for all it burns, even if it burns you...and that's the basis of felony murder,"(Yuill). The reasoning behind charging the young men with felony murder is sound, if they had not been committing the felony, the death would not have occurred. The Elkhart four are now serving the severe sentences they deserve under the felony murder rule.
The majority opinion addresses the timing of the execution pursuant to 22 O.S. 2011 Section 1001.1 (E), (F) will take happen thirty (30) days after the stay is entered. The OCCA states that no witnesses refuted the State’s case - although the snitch didn’t testify at the second trial, the forensic evidence was discredited in multiple murder cases, and the chief prosecutor was a
PROCEDURAL HISTORY= This was brought to the state court were Jacobson was found guilty and then after exhausting the state level he appealed to supreme court of the United States.
In this first case Paton and Thomas vs. Supreme Court these two men were arrested for murder of Christopher Mc Crory. Morris Paton was 30 and Eugene Thomas was 33 this man was arrested for killing Christopher Mc Crory who was only 19. This case happened in New Orleans they were arrested December 23, 2001. At first the charges was capital murder which means they would have got the death penalty if convicted .The Cannizzaro's office knocked the charges down to second-degree murder, which carries mandatory life in prison upon conviction. These two men sat in jail for almost nine years waiting on a trial in 2001. Kathryn Sheely which is Paton’s lawyer says "The 8 1/2 year delay in this case has meant that justice can't be served," Sheely said Monday. "...
On April 5, 1999, 22 year old, Aaron McKinney was found guilty of felony murder, second-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery. 21 year old, Russell Henderson pled guilty to kidnapping and felony murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Two women described as the suspects girlfriends, Chasity Vera Pasley (20) and Krista Lean Price (18) were charged as accessories after the fact of first-degree murder (The Data Lounge, Issues 2000, [on-line]).
Wakefield, Dan. “Justice in Sumner: Land of the Free.” The Nation 1 Oct. 1955: 284-285.
Palmer, Elizabeth A. "The Court and Public Opinion." CQ Weekly 2 Dec. 2000. CQ Weekly. SAGE Publications. Web. 1 Mar. 2000. .
Rosenberg, Debra. “Michigan’s Day in Court.” Newsweek. 14 Apr, 2003. MSNBC Online. 20 Apr, 2003
Murder, a common occurrence in American society, is thought of as a horrible, reprehensible atrocity. Why then, is it thought of differently when the state government arranges and executes a human being, the very definition of premeditated murder? Capital punishment has been reviewed and studied for many years, exposing several inequities and weaknesses, showing the need for the death penalty to be abolished.
In conclusion, the case of Jacob Ind, deals with an individual who was sentenced to life without parole for the killing of his two parents with his stepfathers own .357Magnum. The facts of the case were hat Jacob was tired of being abused sexually by his stepfather and tired of the abuse and hatred his mother gave him. According to the Colorado Revised Statue, it is a fair or just sentencing because he met the requirements needed to achieve his
Abadinsky, Howard. Law and Justice: An Introduction to the American Legal System. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Smolowe, JillWillwerth, James. "Waiting For The Verdicts." Time 142.26 (1993): 48. MAS Ultra - School Edition.
MacHenry, Kelly. "Arizona Civil Verdicts 2011." SWLAW. SWLAW, June 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .