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Essay Instructions: I will forward the actual assignment tomorrow as well as the form it is supposed to follow....Here is the subject material:

"All students are to write and submt a legal memorndum addressing issues involving homicide using Alabama law taken from the Alabama Criminal Code based on the following fact pattern:

"You are the law clerk for Circuit Judge John A. Offensive. The Judge has asked you to prepare him a legal memorandum concerning possible lesser included offenses jury instructions and defense jury instructions in a homicide case he has just tried to completion. The evidence at trial was as follows:

The Defendant is charged with Murder (Section 13A-6-2(a)(1) for the intentional killing of his mistress who he acknowledges he shot once in the head and killed. The deceased had been calling the Defendant for several days prior to the incident demanding he divorce his wife and marry her. (All phone calls were proven via phone records received in evidence at the trial.) The Defendant acknowledged that the two argued bitterly in those phone conversatons he was angry about her demands and threats to expose their affair. On the morning of the incident the deceased called the Defendant and demanded his answer or she would "make him pay!" The Defendant hung up on the deceased. Within 2 hours, the deceased drove over to the Defendant's home. The Defendant, who was alone in his home, saw the deceased pull her car into the driveway and get out of the car heading toward the house. The Defendant saw the deceased apparently carrying something in her hand which was concealed by a sweater. The defendant, a police officer, was leaving for his home to meet her. The deceased stopped approximately 20 feet from the defendant and said to him, angrily, "I told you I make you pay and now you will!" as she began to pull her hand from underneath the sweater. The Defendant testified he feared that she had a gun and was going to shoot him so he pulled out this service weapon, shot her once in the head killing her. At the scene no gun was found in the deceased hand only a letter to his wife outlining their affair. In a later search of the deceased home a small pistol was found by the police.
The judge asks you for a memorandum on these issues:

-First, besides the Murder Charge what if any lesser included offenses (13A-1_9) jury charges can legally be given under these facts and why?

-Second, can a self defense charge be given to the jury and if so why?

-Third, does the Defendant's status as a police officer entitle him to a charge on the defense regarding law enforcement under the defenses section of the code? This question is particularly important and there should be research on the AL criminal code as well as case precedent.

FORM OF THE LEGAL MEMORANDUM:

Memo To: Judge John A. Offense
From: Your Name
Date: 08/04/2009
RE: Possible Jury Instructions for Murder Case

Issue 1-State Issue/Question:

1) Identify relevant facts pertaining to issue
2. Analyze facts to the applicable law
3) Give legal opinion/conclusion you reach and why (i.e. the legal support for the conclusion you reach (I.e. Code seciton or cases cites, annotations in the code)

FOLLOW THIS FORM FOR & ANALYSIS IN ADRESSING ALL ISSUES!!!

This paper should be 5 pages in length, single spaced


There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: In this assignment you will speculate on the nature and strength of the obligation to obey the law in a democratic society, particularly when the law conflicts with a citizen's own moral sense.

Background:
In the nineteenth century, for example, it became illegal to hide runaway slaves;yet many did so on the authority of their own conscience. For instance, is it fair to say that breaking the law is right merely when it appears right to us? Can we say that in some circumstances breaking the law might be morally right but legally wrong? Moreover as citizens in a democracy are we not bound by an implicit promise to obey the very rules that we help make? Or do we only obey those rules that turn out to our liking? If so, what right then do we have to insist that others obey those laws we believe are morally necessary?

In this assignment you will explore the possibility of legally or morally justifying illegal acts. As your format, you will structure your discussion as a LEGAL MEMORANDUM in support of, or opposition to, a real defendant's claim of rightful civil disobedience. This will require you to do some research to locate an interesting and relevant case----one that raises all the issues you think need raising.

The Memorandum should be addressed to Stephen Sao and should include, in order, the following sections (with sub-heads):
Statement of Facts; Questions presented; Short Answer; Relevant Texts; Discussion; Conclusion.

For example:
I-- Introduction
II- Fact Summary (Include judicial history; Who did what, What happened; Statement of facts)
III- Questions presented, Questions raised (In that question, ask some philosophical problems that emerge with the facts. Questions should not be factual?)
IV- Relevant texts (Use it as a works cited page)
V-Short Answer (Should be a sentence or two long. Should be directly responsive to questions raised)
VI- Discussion (Should track the logical order for the short answer)
VII- Conclusion (If you want to get a little more out of your argument, do it here)

Please make sure this format is followed and it is written as a Memorandum.

Essay Instructions: Goal
Your goal for this project is to complete a well-written memorandum to your supervisor
to address two legal issues:
? The appropriate form of business organization for your client’s business
? Requirements for your client’s independent contractor agreement, to make sure
it’s a legally enforceable independent contractor agreement and not viewed as an
employment agreement
Remember not to use too much legalese in your memo. You’re writing it to your
supervisor, and you would expect him or her to have some knowledge of the subject
matter. However, you must completely explain what the law is for each type of business
organization you’re considering and the reasons you’ve selected one type of business
organization as best for your client. The same complete explanation is required when
discussing the issue of your client’s independent contractor agreement.
For this project, please use the following format for your legal memorandum:
To:
From:
Re:
Date:
Summary of Applicable Facts:
Issues:
Law:
Analysis:
Content
The student provides a clear discussion of the assigned topic or issue; addresses the
subject in complete sentences; supports his or her opinion by citing specific information
from the text, assigned Web sites, and other sources; stays focused on the assigned
issues;
Written Communication
The student includes an introduction, analysis, and conclusion supporting his or
her positions
The Project
MEMORANDUM
To: Student
From: Supervisor
Re: New Client, Career Institute of America, Inc. (CIA)
Date: December 6, 20—
FACTS: We have just met a new client, the CEO of Career Institute of America, Inc.
(CIA). Although the business was formed a year ago as a nonprofit corporation, they
are not sure they are happy being a nonprofit.
CIA is a classroom and online education organization that specializes in training
students in the United States auto industry, one of this country’s largest industries.
Their founder, who also serves as the CEO of CIA, would like to retain most of the
ownership and control of the company, since it is really his enterprise. He also has
some concerns about the independent contractor agreement their instructors must
sign when they agree to work for the company. He wants to be sure they are not
construed as employees of the company and are viewed as true independent contractors.
Note that most of the company’s income is from online training courses. You should
also know that they received a U.S. Department of Labor retraining grant for the
instruction they are currently providing and that this type of grant is awarded only to
nonprofit educational organizations. Even though CIA was able to obtain this grant as
a nonprofit institution, they realize it was a one-time grant. They must make their
income from tuition for online courses and in the two small classrooms in which they
teach traditional courses. This is why they are not necessarily opposed to changing
their form of business from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit business.
You should further know that the employment contract they provide to their
instructors looks as if it was designed by an amateur and may not comply with
the legal requirements for a valid independent contractor agreement.
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: I need you to research two areas of law and prepare a
memorandum to me addressing each area, so I can properly advise the client on how
to proceed. First, determine the limitations of a nonprofit corporation in the state of
Delaware, the state in which CIA was formed and is doing business. You should also
review the law for nonprofit and for-profit corporations, as well as limited liability
companies, in order to determine the best form of business for our client.
I suggest you consult the listing of Delaware statutes on the Delaware state Web site to
assist you in your research. Here is the Web address:
http://www.state.de.us/corp/DElaw.shtml

Essay Instructions: --------------CASE-------------

After John Smith was arrested on murder charges, he declined to speak with the police and asked for counsel. The police placed him in a holding cell to await counsel. Before Smith's counsel arrived, a detective and an officer came to hiss cell to hand him a statement of the charges against him. The statement indicated in bold letters at the top that he could face the death penalty, but at the time Smith was under eighteen years old, the age required to be eligible for the death penalty. After handing Smith the statement, the officer stated, “I bet you want to talk now, huh!” The detective then stated, “No, he doesn’t want to talk to us. He already asked for a lawyer. We cannot talk to him now.” Half an hour later, the detective returned to Smith's cell to hand him clothing, and Smith asked, “I can still talk to you?” The detective responded, “Are you saying that you want to talk to me now?” Smith replied that he would talk and proceeded to make incriminating statements about his participation in the murder.


---------INSTRUCTIONS----------------------------------------

The facts you will use for this project are facts you should already be familiar with as you discussed them in conference already. I use these facts to give you the benefit of the debate and discussion that would occur in any law firm or agency setting. You should be able to take the facts and the law and prepare a persuasive memo on one side of the issue or the other. The memo should contain not just a rewrite of the law or facts, but how the law and facts should be analyzed to reach your conclusion. It should e a discussion about how already established law affects the facts and used to convince the recipient of your point. Ignore the finial ruling in the actual case, because if thatc ase was appealed to the Supreme Court, an argument would have to be made as to why the lower court got it wrong.


Prepare a memo on the issues in the facts above using the the case law you have learned in class. Using the following facts, please draft a legal memorandum, 12 point times new roman, double spaced, with appropriate APA style cover page. You must properly cite any cases you in your memo.
It should be no less than 5 pages.