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Criminal Law Midterm Examination : Part B Essay

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Criminal Law Midterm Examination - Part B Student’s Name: Jon Bourgault Date: 7/20/2015 Email: mrjonpaulb@gmail.com Introduction Criminal law is the glitzy branch of law that everyone seems to know something about. Whether or not those beliefs are accurate is something entirely different. Thanks to television shows like Law and Order, Charlie’s Angels and as far back as Perry Mason we have been educated on the basics of criminal law. From the high profile first-degree murder to the less glamorous crime of forgery we have all had a simple legal training that makes everyone an arm-chair lawyer. As an experiment, I decided to ask 5 people to differentiate between homicide and murder. They all instantly agreed and wanted to share their knowledge on law. However, when I asked to explain the difference between homicide and murder (or if there was one) I got 5 different answers. Most of them were pretty close on one term or the other but there was no clear winning answer. I guess we can say that criminal law is like the high school cheerleader. Approachable, serves a purpose but not as easy as it appears. Learning terms in an “as seen on tv” fashion is an easy way to get people aware of and possibly interested in criminal law but as our professors always remind us, television law is for entertainment value only. This is not to say that television can’t offer an intellectual insight into many high profile cases that showcase multiple aspects of a specific crime or a

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