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Legal approach to "A Few Good Men"

Decent Essays

A Few Good Men

The movie, "A Few Good Men," is a story about a pair of U.S. Marines that are charged with murder. They feel that their innocence prevails because their acts were committed as direct orders from their superiors, and these types of orders are not disobeyed. As the story unravels, there are many legal issues that we have covered in our class, BU11, The Legal Environment of Business. In this paper, I plan to go over the main legal elements which occur throughout the film.

Starting off with the facts of the movie, case that is being presented is a criminal one. Two Marines, PFC. Louden Downey and Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson, are charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and conduct unbecoming a Marine. The reason I …show more content…

At this point, Lt. Kaffee wishes to find other representation for his clients because he holds the right to withdraw from the case if his clients refuse to cooperate. After a night of thinking it over, he decides to represent them and enters a plea for not guilty at their arraignment. That brings us into the trial, which is called a general court marshal.

The main argument the defense is planning to use is that the Marines standing trial were executing an order in which they didn't think would result in harm. In his opening statement to the jury of nine, Capt. Ross drives the facts of the case into the jury. This would seem normal because for the prosecution, this case is based heavily on facts. The facts are that one Marine is dead, and two other are standing trial for his death. The defense's rebuttal points out that the actions carried out by the Marines were orders by their commanding officer.

The prosecution, representing the U.S. Government, calls the first witness. A N.I.S. (Naval Investigative Service) officer states that he received a letter from the victim, Private First Class William T Santiago, requesting a transfer off the base. In exchange, the victim would provide evidence of an illegal shooting over the fence line. The offender of the fence line shooting was Lance Cpl. Dawson. The prosecution was trying to show motive by their line of questioning. The defense makes the point

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