WILLIAM MITCHELL COLLEGE OF LAW

FINAL EXAMINATION

CRIMINAL LAW § 1 (Prof. Haugen)

 

Tuesday, December 11, 2001  1:00 – 3:00 PM

Room 125

 

Student Test No. ________

 

1.  For anonymity, use the assigned test number that was mailed to you.

 

2.  Put your test number on this page and on all bluebooks.

 

3.  If you do not know your test number, you may obtain it at the Registrar's   Office (Room 119) during the first 30 minutes of the exam period. 

 

4.  If you do not use your test number, you will be deemed to have waived your privilege of anonymous grading. 

 

 

 

STUDENT CONDUCT CODE

 

IT IS A VIOLATION OF THE CODE:

 

1.  To use any sources which are forbidden by the instructor to complete an exam.

2.  To submit as one's own work the work of another.

3.     To engage in any conduct which tends to give an unfair advantage to any student in any academic matter.

 

Knowledge of any violation should be promptly reported.

 

VIOLATION OF THE STUDENT CONDUCT CODE MAY RESULT IN EXPULSION OR SUSPENSION FROM THE COLLEGE OR DISMISSAL FROM THE CLASS.  

 

 

GRADUATING SENIORS: If you are a graduating senior, note this fact on all bluebooks and on this exam paper.  DO SO CONSPICUOUSLY.

 

Typing Area: If you are going to type your examination, the typing area is located in Room 234.  You must return the exam to this room at the conclusion of the exam period.

 

Criminal Law § 1 (Professor Phebe Haugen)

Final Examination -  Fall Semester, 2001

 

          Police reports reveal the following: 

 

Late in the day on December 11,  2001, 18-year-old Andy went to the office of his Uncle Zack, who owned a small, one-story suburban office building, in which he ran his modest but successful, ten-person accounting business.  Andy’s visit to his uncle was ostensibly to talk with him about a job, as Andy’s parents had been threatening to throw him out of the house if he didn’t find work or go back to school.  In fact, however, Andy only wanted to get into the building so he could hide there until everyone left for the day, and then let his buddies in for a party.   The building was perfect.  It was in a sort of warehouse area, with no houses nearby.  In addition to its several small offices, the place had a big kitchen and a sort of living room with a huge TV (with satellite) and a stereo.  Everyone was usually out of there by seven, and Andy knew how to turn off the alarm system. 

         

After a forced, completely phony conversation with his Uncle, Andy said goodbye and then slipped into a small storage room, where he waited until he was sure everyone had gone.  He emerged from the storage room into the completely darkened building,  turned on a few lights, deactivated the alarm system and then went to the back door to admit about ten of his friends with a stash of liquor and drugs.  It promised to be a great night. 

 

For several hours, things went fine, but about midnight, events took an ugly turn.  Andy and his friend Ben, both of whom had been drinking heavily, began to argue in the kitchen over a former girlfriend of Andy’s whom Ben had been seeing.  The argument escalated to a shoving match down a hallway, and finally, Andy pushed Ben into a small walk-in freezer at the end of the hall, slammed the door shut and locked it.  Ben yelled and swore at Andy to let him out, but Andy ignored him and went back to the party. 

         

Christopher, another of Andy’s buddies (and a bully since childhood), was sitting across a small table from Darren, one of Chris’s perpetual victims.  Chris had a small revolver in his hand, and he was pressuring Darren to play Russian Roulette.  “C’mon Darren, you wimp,” said Chris.  “It’s a rush.  Look, there’s only one bullet and five empties”, he said, opening the gun to reveal the five empty chambers, and spinning the cylinder before he snapped it back in place.  “You just point the gun at your head and pull the trigger.  You got five out of six chances you’ll be fine.  Go on.  Do it, you little pussy.” 

 

Darren was resisting and becoming more and more agitated as Chris grew more insistent and abusive.  A few of the others in the room were watching, but most of them were laughing, not taking it seriously, and no one did anything to stop it.  Suddenly, Darren grabbed the gun, pointed it at his own right temple and pulled the trigger.  There was a loud bang, and he fell dead on the floor.  Pandemonium ensued.  Chris grabbed the gun from beside Darren’s body on the floor.   Ethan, who, until seconds before, had not believed the gun was even real, made a grab for Chris and wrestled the weapon out of his hands. 

 

Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier, one of Zack’s employees had driven by the building, heard the loud music and voices coming from inside and had summoned the security service. Just at the moment Ethan took possession of Chris’s gun, two armed security guards burst into the room and ordered everyone to put their hands up. One of the guards, Fowler, seeing Ethan with the revolver in his hand, fired at him, killing him instantly.

 

The police were summoned and everyone was taken to the station.  It was not until the next day that yet another death was discovered from the disastrous night before.  Ben’s body was found in the freezer.  An autopsy revealed that he had fallen into a diabetic coma and died sometime during the night, though he had been wearing only a light shirt, and the temperature in the nearly airless freezer was well below zero.  The medical examiner concluded that he likely would have died from the conditions of his confinement anyway.  

 

Andy has said that he knew Ben was diabetic and subject to “attacks” if he drank too much, but he himself was so drunk that night he doesn’t remember locking Ben in the freezer.  He remembers arguing with him, but he says everything after that “is a blank until the police came.”  Christopher says he was drinking and using methamphetamine that night, and that he had been “just messing with” Darren.  Others say Chris was relentlessly taunting and verbally abusing him before Darren shot himself.  Fowler, the security guard, says he saw Ethan with the gun in his hand and assumed he had just shot Darren and “had to be taken out.” 

 

Your job, as Assistant County Attorney of Bing County, which uses the Model Penal Code (MPC), is to evaluate the police reports of the events described above and the relevant statutes in order to determine what crimes appear to have been committed and what charges (other than illegal drinking, drug use or weapons possession) should be filed against Andy, Christopher and Fowler.  Assume that your boss, the Bing County Attorney,  wants to know how you have analyzed the case.  Write a memo explaining all the crimes – using the attached statutes – that you believe were committed by each of the three.  Discuss what you will have to prove under the statutes in order to try to persuade a jury of each defendant’s guilt on each of the charges, and explain fully  any defenses or other difficulties you will have to anticipate.  Make judgments about which charges would be most appropriate, and explain why.  Give your best assessment of the likelihood of the prosecution’s success with each crime you identify. Do not discuss any procedural matters or penalties.  Explain all your conclusions.