Reference no: EM133314388

Assignment:

In response to the recent shootings at University of Virginia and in the Chesapeake Walmart this fall, the Virginia Assembly passes a new law aimed at reducing gun violence. The statute requires anyone in the Commonwealth to obtain a special license in order to carry a concealed weapon in a public place. It also increases the potential sentencing penalty for anyone who commits first-degree murder taking the lives of "two or more people" with an unlicensed concealed firearm, by making them eligible for the death penalty. In support of the new law, the Governor of Virginia issues an Executive Order reversing Virginia's existing moratorium on the death penalty, making the Death Penalty legal in Virginia again.

A few weeks after the law goes into effect, Lex Luthor, an anti-abortion activist with a history of espousing violent theories on the internet, shows up at an abortion clinic in Virginia with an unlicensed concealed weapon and shoots a pregnant woman as she is crossing the street to enter the clinic. Neither the woman nor her fetus survives the shooting. After obtaining a search warrant, the police identified evidence that Luther had been tracking the woman on social media and planning the murder for at least several days.

The Commonwealth's Attorney prosecutes Luthor under the new statute and seeks the death penalty. Luthor is assigned a Public Defender, who challenges his prosecution on several grounds. First, they argue that the new Virginia law is unconstitutional because it unduly restricts Luthor's Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms. Second, they argue that the enhanced sentencing penalty should not apply to Luthor because a fetus is not a "life," and therefore, he only took one life, not two, in the shooting. Third, they argue that the Death Penalty is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment because it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

You are a law clerk for Judge Jane Justly, the District Court judge presiding over the case. Judge Justly asks you to write a succinct memo outlining the key issues in the case, as well as the arguments in favor of both the prosecution and the defense.