ADJUS-121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Gas Meter, Model Penal Code

• School: Diablo Valley College
• Department: Administration Of Justice
• Course: ADJUS-121
• Professor: Tiles

Document Summary

State authority verses federal and local authority. If a state refuses to enforce or honor a defendant"s constitutional rights: An appeal can be made to the u. s. supreme court. If the state disregards the supreme court, negotiations will ensue between the justice department and the state. If negotiations get nowhere, the justice department will bring the state to court, and the state will be found in contempt and a sentence will be imposed. If that doesn"t work, the president will send troops to enforce the supreme. Before a defendant can be found guilty of a crime, the state must establish an unlawful mental state. The mental state is an element of the crime, which the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. The most frequently asserted defense of a defendant is claiming that the act was a mistake, and so there was no required mental state. Most theories of punishment don"t work if the defendant is mentally innocent.