Lesser Included Offenses: Court Judgment & Reasons for Conviction - Essay Sample

Introduction

Court judgment entails the decisions that follow the rights and liabilities of individuals in legal action. The process provides courts with reasons that support the choice for a particular order. In lesser included offenses, a crime lies within a more serious crime (Stuart & Coughlan, 2018). Convicting a suspect of lesser offense relies on the necessarily included offenses, in which committing a more significant crime is impossible without a lesser offense. An example of a lesser included crime would be manslaughter, where a person commits culpable homicide to cause the death of a human being in an unlawful act. Manslaughter differs from murder regarding the involvement of malice aforethought (Storey, 2017). Manslaughter involves cases where suspects did not have the intent to kill, cause serious harm, or exhibit an extreme disregard for life.

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1. Charges

According to law, anybody who faces charges with an offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (Albert, Daly, & MacDonnell, 2019). After a fair and public hearing by this independent and impartial tribunal, Maja has been charged with crimes of theft, homicide, and robbery. Maja is charged with murder under s 229(c) of the Criminal Code concerning the death of Hyun-mi for the following reasons:

2. Facts

The following facts are the contents of the evidence that supports the ruling. Maja conspired with Roy to smuggle out a drug sample from Hyun-mi. Maja offered Roy $20,000 to loan her his pass card and another $5,000 to reveal the code that unlocks Hyun-mi's lab. Maja used the card and the information on Friday night to access Xetopa Medical and the lab where Hyun-mi worked. In apparel that concealed her physical identity, Maja used a heavy flashlight to hit Hyun-mi over the head. Hyun-mi got unconscious in the process, after which Maja tied her up and took several vials of the drug from the refrigerator.

On Sunday afternoon, the maintenance crew found Hyun-mi unconscious and tied to a chair. A CT angiogram result showed that Hyun-mi had suffered a massive pulmonary embolism. Surgery did not work as Hyun-mi later died from a great heart and lung damage. Hyun-mi also had Factor V Leiden that exposed her to high risks of hyper-coagulation with blood clots traveling to the lungs.

The postmortem examination revealed the cause of Hyun-mi's death to be a blood clot that formed in her legs and traveled to her lungs. Additionally, the pathologist confirmed that prolonged immobility for people with Factor V Leiden increases the risks of blood clots in the leg. Maja had medical training and was aware that prolonged immobility could cause blood clots and eventual development of pulmonary embolism.

a. Theft

Everyone becomes guilty of theft when they fraudulently take another person's animate or intimate property without color of right. The rule also applies to people who fraudulently convert to their use an animate or intimate property of another person without color of right (Albert, Daly, & MacDonnell, 2019). The crimes must follow the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive the owner of a property when the owner still values and has an interest in the property.

Maja is convicted of theft because she fraudulently took several vials of a drug from Hyun-mi without the color of right. Additionally, Hyun-mi still had an interest in the samples as she was doing a series of experiments to develop a new tumor-agnostic cancer drug. A successful development would have revolutionized cancer treatment and earn billions of dollars for her company.

b. Robbery

A person becomes guilty of robbery for using violence to overcome resistance to stealing and steals another person's property for extortion. The act involves wounding, beating, sticking, or using any personal violence to a person before or immediately after stealing their property (Dodek, 2016). Intent to steal another person's property can also follow assaults or the use of an offensive weapon or its imitation to accomplish robbery.

Maja is guilty of an indictable offense, for she committed robbery by using a heavy flashlight to hit Hyun-mi over the head before unlawfully taking her vials. Maja also overcame resistance to the commission of offense when she hit Hyun-mi to become unconscious, rendering her insensible and incapable of resisting a robbery.

c. Homicide

A person is charged with homicide for directly or indirectly using any means to cause the death of a human being. Homicide can ether deserve blame or not, and one that does not deserve blame is never an offense for being non-culpable. Culpable homicide qualifies as murder, manslaughter, or infanticide. A person also becomes guilty of culpable homicide for using an unlawful act, criminal negligence, threats, fear of violence, or deceiving another person to do anything that causes their death (Brubacher, Bala, & Roberts, 2017). Becoming guilty of culpable homicide also follows the use of unlawful intent to do anything that a person knows or ought to know is likely to result in another person's death, and it eventually causes death.

Maja is convicted of culpable homicide for causing the death of Hyun-mi, having prior knowledge that causing bodily harm would result in death. The crime classifies as murder because Maja was reckless about whether death would ensue or not. Maja had medical knowledge and awareness that prolonged immobility would cause blood clots in the legs and lead to pulmonary embolism to anybody. However, she went ahead to restrain Hyun-mi with the knowledge that rescue will only take place on Sunday. The aspect does not consider Maja's desire to affect her intent without causing death or bodily harm to Hyun-mi. Maja's case is a second-degree murder because she did not plan to cause the death of Hyun-mi deliberately. She intended to render Hyun-mi unconscious and steal her vials but later resulted in death. Every person has the right to life, liberty, and security. The rights are not to be deprived except in cases that are per the principles of fundamental justice (Dodek, 2016). Therefore, Maja is guilty of manslaughter.

3. Analysis

In this charge, Maja can only be guilty of first-degree murder when she had the specific intent that is required for murder. She only acted unlawfully, caused the death of Hyun-mi. As Maja attacked Hyun-mi, she intended to steal the vials rather than deliberately murdering her. Hyun-mi ended up dying in the process of carrying out the plan to steal her vials. Hence, Maja faces the charge of second-degree murder.

The Crown understands the requirements of the Supreme Court of Canada that a respondent becomes guilty of first-degree murder following requisite intent for murder. Moreover, death from first-degree murder must follow a plan or deliberation. The Criminal Code maintains clear differences that distinguish first-degree murder from second-degree murder concerning planning and deliberation (Ceil, 2018). Murder becomes first-degree murder when it is planned and deliberate. In Maja's case, it is quite clear that murder was not planned and deliberate as the initial plan was to steal drug samples for reversed engineering. Following the doctrines of the unlawful act of manslaughter, the malicious intent to commit the crime uses the consequences of that crime (Devlin & Dodek, 2017). Manslaughter occurred as Maja killed Hyun-mi without intent, but she was committing an unlawful act of robbery.

Maja's culpable homicide classifies as murder because the intent to kill happened by accident. The underlying plan was to render Hyun-mi unconscious, but she later died from the injuries. The malice in the crime is transferred to the killing; hence, Maja faces the charge of manslaughter. An unlawful act of manslaughter prevailed in two routes that guided the decision on Maja's case. First, using a heavy flashlight to hit Hyun-mi over the head was an unlawful act that directly caused her death. In another instance, Maja failed to obtain medical attention and care for Hyun-mi when it had become apparent that Hyun-mi was unconscious. The act further constituted an unlawful act as failure to obtain care had a significant contribution to the cause of Hyun-mi's death. There is no substantial evidence that obtaining medical attention would have saved Hyun-mi. Still, negligence meets the test for causation of death as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Maja also becomes guilty of theft by fraudulently taking Hyun-mi's vials without color of right. In this case, she unlawfully and intentionally converted to her use the drug samples that belonged to Hyun-mi. Maja was aware that the act would deprive Hyun-mi of the vials as they were special properties in which she still had an interest. According to the Canadian Criminal Code, theft remains a criminal offense. The code describes theft as an act of taking someone else's property with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive the rightful owner (Dodek, 2016). Maja took away Hyun-mi's vials with no intention to return them as she wanted to beat Hyun-mi in the trials to develop tumor agnostic cancer drugs.

The Crown Prosecutor must consider various elements before convicting an individual guilty of theft in Canada. First, the accused must have moved, caused to move, or began to move someone else's property. Another element covers the movement of a property with the intent to temporarily or permanently steal it without the consent of the owner. The last element involves looking at the approximate value of the property in question to guide charges (Spencer, 2019). In Maja's case, she moved vials that belonged to Hyun-mi. The intention of moving the vials was to steal them permanently without Hyun-mi's consent. The vials also had very high approximated value as success in the trials would greatly revolutionize cancer treatment and earn the developer company billions of dollars. The elements of theft are all applicable to Maja's case, and the aspects prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Maja is guilty of theft.

In another charge, Maja is guilty of robbery as she violently stole from Hyun-mi. stealing is one of the fundamental elements of robbery but differs from theft based on violence. The Criminal Code describes stealing as the act of committing theft with the intent of depriving the owner of the property in question (McCormack, 2016). Maja took the vials with the intent of depriving Hyun-mi possession. Hyun-mi's development was had more chances of success as opposed to Maja's drug that had serious side effects despite being highly effective. Maja became desperate to proceed with her trials and beat Hyun-mi; hence, the act of stealing would deprive Hyun-mi of her possessions that she valued.

Qualitative research is an aspect of social science that acquires and utilizes non-numerical data by extracting meaning to adopt reliable social life interpretations for selected places. This type of research is useful to researchers as it guides in gaining insight into potential business consumers and their consumption behavior. The information allows continuous gauging consumer satisfaction, after which businesses can develop brands and test products while improving and growing existing products to remain sustainable (Belk, 2017, p. 38). Qualitative research guides researchers in testing new ideas and products to get the picture of potential consumer reaction on eventual introduction into the market. It is important to note that the code describes theft as an act of taking someone else's property with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive the rightful owner (Dodek, 2016). Maja took away Hyun-mi's vials with no intention to return them as she wanted to beat Hyun-mi in the trials to develop tumor agnostic cancer drugs. It is also important to note that the Crown Prosecutor must consider various elements before co...