Patrice's Argumentative Essay

Patrice intended on murdering her mother-in-law, Kayla, so she went behind a building and waited for her to get off the bus. After Kayla got off the bus, Patrice shot at her with her rifle, yet missed and executed Angela, who was behind her. Patrice made a second attempt to shoot again at Kayla, however, her rifle jammed and Patrice ran away. Patrice 's lawyer moved to release the charge of the attempted murder of her mother-in-law, Kayla on the grounds that Patrice couldn 't have murdered Kayla because of the malfunctioning of the rifle. The court granted the motion. This essay will discuss whether or not the court’s decision was valid, the elements of murder and moral concerns with this case. Inchoate crimes arrange that individuals can …show more content…
(Lippman, 2015) The factual impossibility, in this case is not a defense to an attempt to commit a crime because it would only be a defense to murder charges and not attempted murder. Patrice had intentions to kill to Kayla and took the substantial steps toward killing her, regardless of the fact that Patrice was unable to complete the crime because the rifle jammed, doesn 't absolve her of the responsibility for the crime of attempted murder. The Model Penal Code, also doesn’t recognize the defense of factual impossibility. (Lippman, 2015) The moral and ethical concerns with the defense successfully asserting the impossibility as a defense; is that people will no longer have faith in justice system. The public will no longer feel safe because they will think that someone can attempt to murder them and get away with it. If criminal justice is moral then crime it’s self is immoral, therefore distinguishes what is right based on specific standards and what is unethical. (Justice, 2016) In this case, the moral and ethical decision would have been to convict Patrice for attempted murder because she tried to take someone else’s life and the only reason it didn’t happen is because she didn’t aim