Reference no: EM131600494

The defense of Stu Dents

Mr. Dents is being convicted of first degree murder, assault of a police officer, kidnapping, and possession of drugs. Mr. Dents' life is on the line with very little circumstantial evidence. Two eye witnesses saw Mr. Dents go into Ms. Opee's apartment sometime after noon. This was four hours before the victim even got off from work. No one knows or can confirm when he left. Ms. Opee left work at 5:10pm that day, she was not found until almost 15 hours later at 7:45am. There is no evidence that says that she went straight home. Because they had been dating for six months, she could have gone over to Mr. Dents place first. There could have been and argument or some type of confrontation there over the drugs there, as the Ms. Opee is the one who has been convicted of assault and drug possession and sales in the past. This could have been where Dents DNA under her fingernails came from. She may have also left her ring and jewelry there at that time. The victim could have then went home and been surprised by someone as she opened her door thinking there were drugs there.

As far as the journal that was found in Dents apartment, saying or writing is not doing. So, writing about a knife, some rope and rags is not relevant, because it proves nothing. As far as the pictures and love letters, they only prove that they were a couple, and he was in love with her.

In regards of the assault of a police officer, the officer stated in his report that Mr. Dents screamed out something about there being aliens on the police force. He also said that the end of the world was coming. Clearly this sounds like a person who is not in their right state of mind and did not know what he was doing. Even in his journal there were many pages that talked about, God, Aliens, and the end of the world. So since there were no drugs found in Mr. Dent's system, there clearly has to be some mental concerns about his state of mind and competence at the time of that incident.

In the case of the drugs found in Mr. Dents home, Ms. Opee is the one who has been convicted of possession and sale of drugs, not Mr. Dents. So an argument could be made that they could have been her drugs, as she had just completed the program she was ordered to complete. And she could have left the drugs at his place because she could not be caught with them at her home.

So the fact that no weapon or crime scene has been found, and that there is no physical evidence that was found to connect Mr. Dents to the crime at his home, this is a very weak circumstantial case to put a man's life on the line for.