CJ 230 Module 7 Project Two

.docx

School

Southern New Hampshire University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

230

Subject

Law

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by CaptainEagle956

1 CJ 230 Project Two Template Memo to the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee To: Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee From: Michaela Watts Date: 12/09/2023 Subject: Discretionary Actions of Judge I am the public representative of Emily Doe and her family. I am writing to express concern regarding the discretionary decisions and actions made by the judge in the recent conviction of the defendant in Miss Doe’s case. I would like to express my concern regarding the following: The law gives judges and prosecutors a very extensive amount of discretion in most cases and rulings. The exception to this would be in situations where the crime entails sentencing guidelines or mandatory minimums. Because of this given discretionary power, a judge can decide based on his personal opinions regarding the case at hand how to sentence the defendant. According to the California State Penal Code section 261(a)(4)(B), (a) rape is considered to be an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person not the spouse of the perpetrator, (4) where a person is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act, and this is known to the accused. The referenced “unconscious of the nature of the act” means incapable of resisting because the victim meets any one of the following conditions: (B) Was not aware, knowing, perceiving, or cognizant that the act occurred. Rape is an act that holds a sentence of 3-15 years imprisonment unless otherwise noted. While the judge had the legal ability to make this decision based on the section “unless otherwise noted”, this decision was made in a biased manner due to the defendant's elite status

2 and high academic and athletic performance. The law states that a judge is to rule and uphold the law fairly and impartially (Pollock, 2019). However, this judge gave a 6-month sentence and lifetime sex offender registration for a crime that is deserving of a 3-year imprisonment minimum. The Judge's decision impacted not only the victim's family and the victim but also future criminals as they may feel as long as they are of good standing in society, they may receive leniency as this defendant has. The impacts of this ruling are negative as the victim is left without proper and fair retribution, the criminal has been freed without punishment that is equal to the offense committed, and society is left to believe that the successful and white elite members of society can get away with serious crimes. One of the steps within the discretionary decision-making process is the selection of alternatives, and during this process, a judge can make a decision that goes against what most would find to be reasonable, moral, and just. In this case, the judge was focused more on the potential harm to the defendant's future rather than the victim's welfare and feeling of receiving justice. The judge could have made this decision a positive one by sentencing the perpetrator to the minimum 3-years incarceration, as this would have given the victim and their family proper justice. This would have ensured the defendant was treated accordingly as a criminal, and not as an exception to justice. The second step of the discretionary decision-making process involves law enforcement gathering as much information and evidence as possible. This is the data gathering or discovery portion which in this case allowed for two witnesses to be able to identify the defendant that they saw engage in sexual activity with the victim while the victim was in an unconscious state and unable to give consent. In addition to this, prosecutors were able to obtain documentation from the hospital regarding the victim’s examination results which included evidence of sexual abuse.

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help