Tort Law Introduction

Read the following descriptions.  Each case involves an injury.  Assume that a civil suit is brought by the injured person.  For each case:
(1) identify the plaintiff and the defendant or defendants
(2) determine whether the defendant should pay for the plaintiff's damages.  Explain your answers.

1.  16 yr old Carrie is babysitting 4 yr old Jill.  Carrie leaves Jill in the living room and goes into the kitchen to call her boyfriend.  She can hear but cannot see Jill.  While Carrie is away, Jill falls off a chair and is hurt.

2.  Ben, a high school football player, tackles a teammate in practice.  When the teammate hits the ground, his shoulder is dislocated.

3.  Mr. Smith owns a large apartment building.  When his janitors wax the lobby floor, they place near the front door a "high visible" sign that reads: Caution. Wet Floors.  A lady is hurrying home from shopping carrying large bags of groceries.  She does not see the sign and slips and falls, injuring her knee and arm.

4.  Corina leaves a sharp knife on the kitchen table after making a sandwich.  A 3 yr old neighbor who has been invited over to play with Corina's daughter climbs up on a chair, grabs the knife, and seriously cuts his finger.

5.  Jamal, a school bus driver, has a heart attack while driving the bus.  The bus slams into a wall, injuring several students.  One month earlier Jamal's doctor warned him of his heart condition.

6.  Matt and Emily are sitting  in the upper deck behind first base at a MLB game.  A foul ball is hit, hits the railing, and hits Matt in the head giving him a concussion.  Signs are hung saying, "Be aware of objects leaving the field of play."

7.  Jess, an expert auto mechanic, continues to drive her car even though she knows that the brake linings are badly worn.  Driving on a rain-slick road at night, she skids into a bicyclist who is riding by the curb.

DNA Blog

Along with what seems to be the case in the West Memphis 3 case, visit this website and answer the following:

1.  Find 10 facts or stats you find on the site
2.  What are some leading causes of wrongful convictions.  Which one is most responsible for putting innocent people in prison? Do any of these surprise you?(make sure you answer all parts of this question)
3.  Tell me about and describe major parts of 1 case that has been changed due to new DNA evidence.  EXPLAIN AND DESCRIBE!

The interesting facts can be found on this page.  The cases are found if you go to the left side of the page and click on the "Press Releases" link and it will give you a long list of cases that have been reversed. 

Oklahoma City Bombing

Read the account of the Oklahoma City Bombing and answer the following questions:
1.  Who was charged in the bombing?
2.  Was anyone charged that wasn't involved in the bombing?
3.  What were each of them charged with (give me each person and a list of charges)?
4.  The charges include several types of murder.  What were they and why were they applied?
5.  When they were just talking about bombing the Federal Building and yet to do anything, is that a part of their Freedom of Speech or is making a law against Conspiracy to commit a crime a good limit of free speech?  Why or why not?


On April 19, 1995, a truck-bomb explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, left 168 people dead and hundreds more injured. The blast was set off by anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh, who in 2001 was executed for his crimes. His co-conspirator Terry Nichols received life in prison. Until September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was the worst terrorist attack to take place on U.S. soil.

Oklahoma City Bombing: April 19, 1995

At 9:02 a.m., a rental truck packed with explosives detonated in front of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. The powerful explosion blew off the building’s north wall. Emergency crews raced to Oklahoma from across the country, and when the rescue effort finally ended two weeks later the death toll stood at 168 people, including 19 young children who were in the building's day care center at the time of the blast. More than 650 other people were injured in the bombing, which damaged or destroyed more than 300 buildings in the immediate area.
A massive hunt for the bombing suspects ensued, and on April 21 an eyewitness description led authorities to charge Timothy McVeigh (1968-2001), a former U.S. Army soldier, in the case. As it turned out, McVeigh was already in jail, having been stopped a little more than an hour after the bombing for a traffic violation and then arrested for unlawfully carrying a handgun. Shortly before he was scheduled to be released from jail, he was identified as a prime suspect in the bombing and charged.  That same day, Terry Nichols (1955-), an associate of McVeigh's, surrendered in Herington, Kansas. Both men were found to be members of a radical right-wing survivalist group based in Michigan.
On August 8, Michael Fortier, who knew of McVeigh's plan to bomb the federal building, agreed to testify against McVeigh and Nichols in exchange for a reduced sentence. Two days later, McVeigh and Nichols were indicted on charges of murder and unlawful use of explosives.

Oklahoma City Bombing and Timothy McVeigh

While still in his teens, McVeigh, who was raised in western New York, acquired a penchant for guns and began honing survivalist skills he believed would be necessary in the event of a Cold War showdown with the Soviet Union. He graduated from high school in 1986 and in 1988 enlisted in the Army, where he proved to be a disciplined and meticulous soldier. While in the military, McVeigh befriended fellow soldier Nichols, who was more than a dozen years his senior and shared his survivalist interests.
In early 1991, McVeigh served in the Persian Gulf War. He was decorated with several medals for his military service; however, after failing to qualify for the Special Forces program, McVeigh accepted the Army’s offer of an early discharge and left in the fall of 1991. At the time, the American military was downsizing after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Another result of the Cold War's end was that McVeigh shifted his ideology from a hatred of foreign communist governments to a suspicion of the U.S. federal government, especially as its new leader Bill Clinton (1946-), elected in 1992, had successfully campaigned for the presidency on a platform of gun control.
McVeigh, Nichols and their associates were deeply radicalized by such events as the August 1992 shoot-out between federal agents and survivalist Randy Weaver at his Idaho cabin, in which Weaver's wife and son were killed, and the April 19, 1993, inferno near Waco, Texas, in which 75 members of a Branch Davidian religious sect died. McVeigh planned an attack on the Murrah Building, which housed regional offices of such federal agencies as the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, the agency that had launched the initial raid on the Branch Davidian compound.
On April 19, 1995, the two-year anniversary of the disastrous end to the Waco standoff, McVeigh parked a Ryder rental truck loaded with a diesel-fuel-fertilizer bomb outside the Murrah Building and fled. Minutes later, the massive bomb exploded.

Oklahoma City Bombing: McVeigh and Nichols Sentenced

On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was convicted on all 11 counts against him, and on August 14 the death penalty was formally imposed. The following year, Fortier, who had met McVeigh in the Army, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn authorities about the Oklahoma City bombing plan. Fortier was released from prison in 2007 and entered the witness protection program.
In December 1997, Nichols was found guilty on one count of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, for killing federal law enforcement personnel, and was sentenced to life in prison. In 2004, he was tried on state charges in Oklahoma and convicted of 161counts of first-degree murder, including fetal homicide. He received 161 consecutive life terms in prison.
In December 2000, McVeigh asked a federal judge to stop all appeals of his convictions and to set a date for his execution. The request was granted, and on June 11, 2001, McVeigh, 33, died by lethal injection at the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was the first federal prisoner to be put to death since 1963.
In May 1995, the Murrah Building was demolished for safety reasons, and a national memorial and museum later opened at the site.

Criminal Law Blog

Do the best you can to answer the following question.  I want to see what you know about Criminal Law.  Make your best guess.  Later we will revisit these scenarios and I will ask you to give me the correct answer.

Scenarios:

1.  John is binging on some Netflix and is making some pizza in his bachelor pad apartment.  While he is lying on his couch, he falls asleep.  When John wakes up, his kitchen is on fire which spreads to the neighboring apartment quickly.  By the end of the night, several apartments are burnt and most have smoke damage.  Is John "criminally" responsible?  If not, how is he responsible for the fire?

2.  Jeb and Marci decide to burglarize a jewelry store.  Their friend Carl, an employee of the store, helps by telling them the location of the store's vault.  Marci drives the van to the store and keeps a lookout while Jeb goes inside and cracks the safe.  After Jeb and Marci make their getaway, Jeb meets a friend, Shawn, who was not involved in the actual burglary.  Jeb tells Shawn about the burglary, and Shawn helps Jeb get a train out of town.  David, a former classmate of Jeb and Marci, witnesses the crime but does not tell the police, even though he recognizes both of them.  How will each person be charged?  Why is this a burglary and not a robbery?

3.  You are out getting the new Grand Theft Auto and the rest of your family decided to go to the movies.  When you get home ready to spend a ridiculous time shooting up the streets and stealing cars, you find your front door open.  Upon further inspection, you find your Xbox, games, family nicknacks, and several other expensive items gone.  Have you been "robbed" or "burglarized"?  What is the difference?

4.  You have been sick for weeks.  You go to the doctor and get a prescription pill.  The doctor, as well as the bottle clearly state that you should not use heavy machinery or drive a vehicle while taking the drug because it could cause drowsiness and fatigue.  You decide to ignore the warnings and take your prescription as you leave the pharmacy just to get some relief you haven't had in weeks.  On the way home, you start to feel groggy and you fall asleep at the wheel.  When you wake up, you are surrounded by sirens and find out you ran off the road and hit a pregnant woman and her husband, killing them both.  Will you be charged with murder or is it just an accident?  If it is murder, what kind of murder would you be charged with?  How many count of that type of murder would you face in South Dakota?  What is the penalty for that crime?

5.  You and a friend get into an altercation or fight with each other.  Your friend gets more angry than you have ever seen and grabs a scissors from a desk and say they are going to stab you with them.  What is your friend guilty of- Assault, Battery, or Both?  Why?

6.  Same scenario as last time but instead of your friend getting mad, you grab the scissors, threaten your friend, and then tackle your friend trying to cut and stab them.  What are you guilty of- Assault, Battery, or Both?  Why?

7.  Same scenario as above but your friend fights back and ends up stabbing you with the scissors in order to get away.  Is your friend guilty of Assault, Battery, or Both?  Why or Why not?