FACT PATTERN Five male university students (Abe, Bob Dan and Ed) were on Spring
ID: 3460699 • Letter: F
Question
FACT PATTERN
Five male university students (Abe, Bob Dan and Ed) were on Spring Break. They met a young woman named Mary. They lured her back to their hotel room and made sexual advances but she only accepted Dan’s overtures.
Abe said “If Mary isn’t willing to have sex with us we’ll force her” Bob nodded his assent but Dan and Ed did not respond. Abe locked the door and Mary could not get out. Bob suddenly had a change of heart and left the hotel room but didn’t do anything further.
Abe then forced Mary to have sex with him and Mary passed out. Dan decided that since Mary wanted to have sex with him it was ok and proceeded to have sex with the unconscious Mary. Mary woke up screaming and Abe choked her until she was dead. Ed watched the whole thing but said and did nothing.
After Mary dies, Abe and Dan and Ed went to Bob’s bedroom and told him the whole story. Bob invited them to stay with him so they wouldn’t be found with the dead body of Mary.
The next morning, police found Mary’s dead body and arrested all the students.
QUESTION
What crimes (if any) will the students (individually and collectively) be charged with; what will be their individual and collective defenses, what, in your opinion, will be the potential outcome and why?
Explanation / Answer
The students will be charged with collectively crimes because all of them were involved either directly or indirectly. Abe and Dan are directly involved in the crime scene by sexually assaulting and killing her while Ed and Bob were indirectly involved because they were aware of the whole crime taking place in their presence but did not inform cops about the crime and became the part of the crime by passively watching and letting their group members committing the crime. Therefore, in this way it is a collective crime with the involvement of all four of them.
In the given case, Bob and Ed ( collectively) may get defended by the prosecutor by poking and arguing that other two ( Abe and Dan) are the real culprits and not these two because they were not involved actively in sexual assaulting and killing Mary nor they help them in doing so by physically engaging themselves and thus may not be declared guilty. Dan in his individual defense may get defended as in the beginning it was Mary who initiated towards the agreements for Dan only, thus it was Mary who lured/invited Dan for sexual interests.
The potential outcomes for all four of them will vary according to their roles in the commitment of crime.
Ed and Bob shall be awarded the life prisonment because of not their active involvement in the crime while on the other hand Abe and Dan shall be awarded extreme punishment of death sentence for raping, torturing and murdering Mary.
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