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
“William Henry Furman, a twenty-six-year-old black man with a sixth grade education, was not what most people called a “bad” man,” (Herda 7). Furman was just laid off of his job and was struggling to find work. But there was none. Every job did not pay enough, or was a short term job. Eventually, depressed, hungry, and broke, Furman turned to breaking and entering and to petty thievery by means of survival. Furman was caught a few times and was given a light sentence. He was also examined by a psychiatrist and was determined to be mentally impaired, but not enough to go to a mental institution. But on August 11, 1967, Furman went to rob the house of twenty-nine-year-old William Joseph Micke, Jr. with his wife and five young children. When searching through the house, Furman made too much noise, which alerted Micke. Furman heard Micke walking down the stairs and pulled out his gun that he used for scaring people away. But Micke kept walking downwards. Not wanting to be caught, Furman tried to run away and tripped over an exposed cord. His gun discharged. The bullet ricocheted to the back door. On the other side, a body fell to the floor. William Joseph Micke Jr. was dead. “The police responded to the call quickly and, within minutes, they had apprehended Furman just down the street from the scene of the crime. The murders weapon was still in his pocket,” (Herda 9). Furman tried to plead guilty by insanity and the psychiatrists described him as legally insane. But then, several days later one of the psychiatrists revised their medical opinion. Because he was not insane, the case would go on. The state of Georgia charged him with murder and issued the death penalty. This was because Georgia state law stated that any form of murder is...
The conceptual foundation of the U.S. Constitution is that there is a checks and balance system within the government that was developed to ultimately protect the rights of the people. In Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati (1986), there is an ongoing string of rulings from multiple appeals, for multiple rulings, that derived from a single case. What is interesting to note is that the original charge in the case is not the same charge for the most recent ruling. The actual case that is being heard in the Supreme Court is for civil damages. Although the law is being followed in allowing for the checks and balances to take place, the history of this case took place over a period of nine years from 1977-1986. One could question the efficiency of public administration in delivering a timely decision. As each case reached a ruling, another appeal needed to be submitted for the new justification of the ruling. Many different actions were submitted for review based on the different findings for each new ruling. A mentioned previously, this process was completed over a nine year period, and in accordance
Abadinsky, Howard. Law and Justice: An Introduction to the American Legal System. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
...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.
This criminal case is about Chester Turner, who is a serial killer that lived in the Los Angeles. Chester Dewayne Turner was born in Warren, Arkansas he moved to LA with his mother at the age five. He went to public schools and dropped out of high school found a job at Domino’s Pizza as a cook and delivery person. He lived continue to live with his mother until she moved to Utah and from there it was homeless shelters and missions. Turner was jailed seven times from 1995 to 2002, for which six of the are nonviolent offenses and one assault charge on an office. Turner was charged with the murder of 10 women, and one of the victim’s unborn child. On April 30, 2007, he was convicted of murder and on July 10, 2007 he was sentenced to death.
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.
Remy, Richard C., Gary E. Clayton, and John J. Patrick. "Supreme Court Cases." Civics Today. Columbus, Ohio: Glencoe, 2008. 796. Print.
Wakefield, Dan. “Justice in Sumner: Land of the Free.” The Nation 1 Oct. 1955: 284-285.
This case goes back from the year 1980. A man approached a young woman named Laura Moore at a bus stop in the Spring of 1984. The man disclosed a warning saying “ You shouldn’t be out here alone. Bad guys will pick you up, Let me take you where you have to go.” Moore, 21 at the time , agreed to take the man’s offer. As they both drove off, he then told her to put on her seat belt. When she refused, she states that the man reached under his seat, grabbed a gun and shot her six times. Moore was severely wounded, fortunately she managed to escape, but turned back to study his face. That man was Lonnie David Franklin Jr, now better-known as the serial killer the “Grim Sleeper”. Lonnie David Franklin Jr was convicted of 10-25 women 's murders. The Grim Sleeper murder’s were active during the 1980s and there was a period of time that the killings had stopped. Franklin wanted to keep a low profile. In 2002 the Grim Sleeper’s killing made a surprising return for the community of Los Angeles. For 14 years he remained inactive which raised questions for law
Smolowe, JillWillwerth, James. "Waiting For The Verdicts." Time 142.26 (1993): 48. MAS Ultra - School Edition.
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
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]).
Schneider, Craig. “Focus on JONBENET RAMSEY A brief life story.” The Atlanta Journal the Atlanta Constitution
Another example of this case is the case of Andrew Mallard. Andrew Mark Mallard was wrongfully convicted in 1995 of murdering jeweller Pamela Lawrence at her Mosman Park shop on May 23, 1994. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but in 2006 walked free after 12 years in jail, when his conviction was quashed by the High Court of Australia. (Mallard)