CRLS 4400 - "In a Nut Shell" Notes and
Cases
How does Criminal Law differ from Civil Law? - correct answer ✔Criminal
Law aims for PUNISHMENT, while Civil Law is about MONEY
(Compensation, Injuries, etc.)
What are the purposes of punishment? - correct answer ✔1. Reformation
2. Restraint
3. Retribution
4. Deterrence
What is "Reformation? - correct answer ✔
What is "Restraint"? - correct answer ✔
What is "Retribution"? - correct answer ✔
What is "Deterrence"? - correct answer ✔
R. v. Jones, 115 Can.Crim.Cas.Ann. 273 (Ont.App.1956) - correct answer
✔Involved a thirty-five year old defendant who pleaded guilty to three counts
of indecent assault against young girls. (P. 9) Sentenced to six to eighteen
months.
R. v. Dudley and Stephens, 15 Cox.Crim.Case. 624 (Q.B.1884) - correct
answer ✔While adrift on a lifeboat about a thousand miles from land, killed
the weakest and sickliest of those on the boat, and fed upon his body to avoid
, death by starvation. The Queen's Bench found that this act constituted wilful
murder and sentenced the defendants to death, the only penalty then
available for murder. Later, the Crown commuted the sentence to six months
imprisonment. (P.11)
Weems v. U.S., 217 U.S. 349 (1910) - correct answer ✔The Supreme Court
held that punishment which is cruelly disproportionate to the crime offends this
clause. Weems so categorized a sentence of fifteen years of hard labor in leg
irons for a public official who falsified a minor document.
Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977) - correct answer ✔Disallowed the
death penalty for rape not-withstanding extremely aggravating circumstances.
He raped a 16 year old girl in the presence of her husband, robbed them both
at knifepoint, kidnapped his rape victim, and threatened her with death. All
after having escaped from prison while serving three life, two twenty year and
eight year consecutive sentences from the rape and murder of woman and
rap, kidnapping and assault of another.
Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982) - correct answer ✔Court held that
the death penalty was disproportionately cruel when applied to a minor
participant in a felony murder who defendant neither personally killed,
attempted to kill, intended that there be a killing, nor intended that lethal force
be employed. The death penalty could not be imposed on Enmund, who
planned the robbery and drove the getaway car but lacked the requisite
homicidal state of mind.
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2004) - correct answer ✔Held that evolving
standards of decency are such that it is constitutionally impermissible to
sentence a mentally retarded person to death, regardless of the severity of his
crime. Mental retardation does not negate the defendant's culpability. Capital
punishment is cruel and unusual.
Cases
How does Criminal Law differ from Civil Law? - correct answer ✔Criminal
Law aims for PUNISHMENT, while Civil Law is about MONEY
(Compensation, Injuries, etc.)
What are the purposes of punishment? - correct answer ✔1. Reformation
2. Restraint
3. Retribution
4. Deterrence
What is "Reformation? - correct answer ✔
What is "Restraint"? - correct answer ✔
What is "Retribution"? - correct answer ✔
What is "Deterrence"? - correct answer ✔
R. v. Jones, 115 Can.Crim.Cas.Ann. 273 (Ont.App.1956) - correct answer
✔Involved a thirty-five year old defendant who pleaded guilty to three counts
of indecent assault against young girls. (P. 9) Sentenced to six to eighteen
months.
R. v. Dudley and Stephens, 15 Cox.Crim.Case. 624 (Q.B.1884) - correct
answer ✔While adrift on a lifeboat about a thousand miles from land, killed
the weakest and sickliest of those on the boat, and fed upon his body to avoid
, death by starvation. The Queen's Bench found that this act constituted wilful
murder and sentenced the defendants to death, the only penalty then
available for murder. Later, the Crown commuted the sentence to six months
imprisonment. (P.11)
Weems v. U.S., 217 U.S. 349 (1910) - correct answer ✔The Supreme Court
held that punishment which is cruelly disproportionate to the crime offends this
clause. Weems so categorized a sentence of fifteen years of hard labor in leg
irons for a public official who falsified a minor document.
Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977) - correct answer ✔Disallowed the
death penalty for rape not-withstanding extremely aggravating circumstances.
He raped a 16 year old girl in the presence of her husband, robbed them both
at knifepoint, kidnapped his rape victim, and threatened her with death. All
after having escaped from prison while serving three life, two twenty year and
eight year consecutive sentences from the rape and murder of woman and
rap, kidnapping and assault of another.
Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982) - correct answer ✔Court held that
the death penalty was disproportionately cruel when applied to a minor
participant in a felony murder who defendant neither personally killed,
attempted to kill, intended that there be a killing, nor intended that lethal force
be employed. The death penalty could not be imposed on Enmund, who
planned the robbery and drove the getaway car but lacked the requisite
homicidal state of mind.
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2004) - correct answer ✔Held that evolving
standards of decency are such that it is constitutionally impermissible to
sentence a mentally retarded person to death, regardless of the severity of his
crime. Mental retardation does not negate the defendant's culpability. Capital
punishment is cruel and unusual.
