Introduction For our seventh lesson in Portfolio Milestone I am choosing to explore Option # 2: Developing a defense for Richard based on facts, his age at the time of the offense, and state of mind during the offense. How he may have been better off with a jury trial. My original thoughts were that Richard was highly intelligent, articulate and should have known better. After further study I am thinking to some extent the system failed Richard and other youths in similar cases. Challenges of the law Colorado is one seven states that gives District Attorney’s the freedom to charge children with crimes of adults, bypassing the “transfer-hearing” found in the other 43 states. This is known as “direct file.” Direct file
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(Even in death penalty cases, a DA can decide to pursue the sentence, but a jury ultimately decides the offenders fate.”) Richard Mijares became part of this system when he shot and killed his mother and the Colorado Springs District Attorney asserted the need to implement the tool (direct file), at his disposal, to slam dunk the tragic Mijares case without applying the Rational Basis test. As I understand it, this test basically assumes the government is proper in its prosecution and shifts the burden of proof to the party making the challenge of rational basis, in other words to show that the law or policy is improper, illegal or unconstitutional. Our textbook states; “Rational Basis Test. A classification is presumed valid so long as it is rationally related to a constitutionally permissible state interest. An individual challenging the statute must demonstrate that there is no rational basis for a classification. This …show more content…
Richard’s intelligence gives him more culpability to know right and wrong. The defendant “a child” needs to present a full background of his mental state from years of father’s mental and physical abuse and a mother that allowed her children to “experience inaccessible, frightening, or inconsistent family context, seeking protection and support from family directly “this caused Richard to effectively feel and not able regain a sense of self and security. “Thus, the emotional security hypothesis postulates…alter reality to obtain emotional security” (Goldner, L., & Berenshtein-Dagan, T.,
(Even in death penalty cases, a DA can decide to pursue the sentence, but a jury ultimately decides the offenders fate.”) Richard Mijares became part of this system when he shot and killed his mother and the Colorado Springs District Attorney asserted the need to implement the tool (direct file), at his disposal, to slam dunk the tragic Mijares case without applying the Rational Basis test. As I understand it, this test basically assumes the government is proper in its prosecution and shifts the burden of proof to the party making the challenge of rational basis, in other words to show that the law or policy is improper, illegal or unconstitutional. Our textbook states; “Rational Basis Test. A classification is presumed valid so long as it is rationally related to a constitutionally permissible state interest. An individual challenging the statute must demonstrate that there is no rational basis for a classification. This …show more content…
Richard’s intelligence gives him more culpability to know right and wrong. The defendant “a child” needs to present a full background of his mental state from years of father’s mental and physical abuse and a mother that allowed her children to “experience inaccessible, frightening, or inconsistent family context, seeking protection and support from family directly “this caused Richard to effectively feel and not able regain a sense of self and security. “Thus, the emotional security hypothesis postulates…alter reality to obtain emotional security” (Goldner, L., & Berenshtein-Dagan, T.,