Reference no: EM133270665
Assignment - Criminal Justice Essay
Description - In this chapter you have studied the crime of homicide. Your assignment is to research an actual case of criminal homicide and compare it with the Texas criminal law to determine what category of criminal homicide the alleged offender in your case should be charged with under Texas law.
You first need to find an actual case of criminal homicide that occurred outside of the state of Texas. Your best source of information may be a newspaper. You are encouraged to use one of the many online newspaper sources. You do not have to use a newspaper. You may use instead magazines, books, or other reputable sources. Make sure that there is good information in your news source of the details of how the homicide was committed, who is suspected of committing the homicide, where and when it was committed, who was killed, and why the homicide was committed.
Secondly, you need to research Texas criminal law regarding the types of criminal homicide and the essential elements of each type. Your source has to be the official penal code of Texas. You can find the Texas Penal Code in print form or online. The online source can be found at the following link: Texas Penal Code-Criminal Homicide (Links to an external site.).
In this assignment you will act as prosecutor and decide how to charge the alleged perpetrator in the actual crime case that you selected. In doing this, you will need to consider and answer the following questions: Based on the crime that you researched, how would you charge the perpetrator? Which of the four types of criminal homicide should this defendant be charged with? Why would you charge the defendant with this type of criminal homicide? What specific elements in your crime dictate how the defendant should be charged?
Your answer to this Writing Assignment needs to be written in WORD with a Times New Roman 12 point font size, one-inch margins, and should be between 2 and 4 pages in length. See grading rubric in the syllabus for further details.
In order to receive full credit, your answer has to include all of the following:
A brief narrative of the crime committed. Explain what happened, who was killed, who is alleged to have committed the homicide, where, when, how, and why the homicide was committed. Make sure that this crime was committed some place other than Texas.
Your analysis should include a summary of the originating State statutes and penal code offense(s) this section should include the offense level (e.g. felony in the third degree) and the minimum and maxmimum punishment.
An explanation of how you would charge the perpetrator of this homicide if this crime had been committed in Texas and if you were the prosecutor with authority to charge this crime. Summarize and Identify which of the four types of criminal homicide you would charge this defendant. You will need to explain your decision, making sure to tie the circumstances of your crime with the essential elements of the type of criminal homicide that you are charging the defendant. As part of your explanation, explain why the crime does not fit the other types of criminal homicide under Texas law.
Compare and contrast the Texas penal code with the originating state penal. How are the offense definitions similar and/or different? How are the maximum/minimum punishments different? Are there differences between the definitions a felony in Texas compared to the originating state penal code?