Supreme Court Cases

Front 1

Roper v. Simmons

Back 1

As people under 18 differ from adults in (1) maturity, (2) vulnerability, (3) less-developed character, the death penalty is a disproportionate punishment according to the 8th and 14th amendments.

Front 2

Chicago v. Morales

Back 2

Plurality, majority part V. The gang loitering ordinance is unconstitutional because it failed to establish minimum guidelines for the police.

Front 3

Patterson v. New York

Back 3

Allocation of proof for the affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance to the defendant is consistent with due process.

Front 4

Robinson v. California

Back 4

It is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment to be criminally punished for a disease or status. There must be an act committed.

Front 5

Powell v. Texas

Back 5

Defendant guilty because being drunk in public constitutes an act. Alcoholism isn't a disease because drinking the first drink is volitional.

Front 6

Morissette v. United States

Back 6

Except in certiainkinds of cases where mens rea need not be proved, any silence on the part of the legislature in regards to the mental element of a case should be assumed as including a general element of intent. The intent element should apply to every other element unless otherwise evident.

Front 7

Ratzlaf v. United States

Back 7

General principle of the law is that ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but the court holds that a statute which requires a person to have 'willfully violated' the statute requires that the person have known that their action was illegal.

Front 8

Staples v. United States

Back 8

Court finds that although there is no mens rea element, they read a 'knowingly' intent to all but the last element, therefore must know he was in possession of a machine gun and that the features of his gun had been brought within the scope of the statute. Strict liability for unregistered.

Front 9

Cheek v. United States

Back 9

If D honestly believes his acts do not violate law, then not a willful violation, whether belief was reasonable or unreasonable. The more unreasonable, the less a jury will believe that it is an honest belief. An unreasonable belief that a law is unconstitutional is not permitted.

Front 10

United States v. Bailey

Back 10

The federal prisoners who escaped from jail due tot he apparent duress caused by the conditions they were in were found to be justified in their escape but not in the fact that they did not turn themselves in afterwards once they were out of the position of fear.

Front 11

Jacobson v. United States

Back 11

Supreme Court used a subjective test to determine whether the defendant had been predisposed to commit the crime before the government came to him. It as found that his conviction as reversed because he had been entrapped. While he had a predisposition to pornography, there was no apparent proof he was willing to break the law.