JL&E Class Notes
- Mi Kayla Whitman
- Dec 17, 2019
- 6 min read
This contains all of my class notes as well as reflections on each of my four main stories.
Class Notes:
Collin Richards Case:
Aaron L. Siebrecht:
Chief Pub. Def.
202 W State St
Marshalltown, IA 50158-5842
Marshall County
Contact Aaron L. Siebrecht
(641) 752-0083
Ted Fisher:
Attorney in Waterloo, IA
Graduated from Iowa
Licensed since 2014
Iowa Code Section 707.1:
Murder defined.
A person who kills another person with malice aforethought either express or implied commits murder.
Iowa Code Section 707.2(1)(a)
1. A person commits murder in the first degree when the person commits murder under any of the following circumstances:
a. The person willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation kills another person.
b. The person kills another person while participating in a forcible felony.
c. The person kills another person while escaping or attempting to escape from lawful custody.
d. The person intentionally kills a peace officer, correctional officer, public employee, or hostage while the person is imprisoned in a correctional institution under the jurisdiction of the Iowa department of corrections, or in a city or county jail.
e. The person kills a child while committing child endangerment under section 726.6, subsection 1, paragraph “b”, or while committing assault under section 708.1 upon the child, and the death occurs under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life.
f. The person kills another person while participating in an act of terrorism as defined in section 708A.1.
2. Murder in the first degree is a class “A” felony.
3. For purposes of determining whether a person should register as a sex offender pursuant to the provisions of chapter 692A, the fact finder shall make a determination as provided in section 692A.126.
Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.23(3)(a):
Imposition of sentence.
a. Informing the defendant. When the defendant appears for judgment, the defendant must be informed by the court or the clerk under its direction, of the nature of the indictment, the defendant's plea, and the verdict, if any thereon, and be asked whether the defendant has any legal cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced against the defendant.
Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale, Iowa:
James McKinney, Warden
2700 Coral Ridge Avenue
Coralville, IA 52241
319-626-2391
Story County Sheriff:
Paul Fitzgerald
Iowa Code Section 903A.5:
Iowa Code Section 910.3B:
Iowa Code Section 356.7:
Charges for administrative costs and room and board — enforcement procedures.
Iowa Code Section 81.2(1):
1. A person who receives a deferred judgment for a felony or against whom a judgment or conviction for a felony or aggravated misdemeanor has been entered shall be required to submit a DNA sample for DNA profiling pursuant to section 81.4.
Iowa Code Section 901.5(8A)(a)
The court shall order DNA profiling of a defendant convicted of an offense that requires profiling under section 81.2.
Eptstein Notes:
Took a decade for the decision that they had broken the crimes victims rights act
They were misleading victims that they were investigating and that charges would be brought
Prosecutors were just negotiating with Epstein’s lawyers rather than really investigating him
Opened his own investment firm and only worked with extremely wealthy people. Worked with President Clinton and Trump.
Donated a lot of money to a lot of charitable causes
None of the victims have ever sought money, it’s simply about the law being broken
They want him to go to prison and be held accountable
Hadn’t found any evidence that anyone was monitoring him
After Death:
Sad day for victims
Had tried to harm himself before and was on suicide watch
There may be non-disclosure agreements that mean nothing now that he is dead so more people may come forward
Our criminal justice system doesn’t treat people equally
An awakening for our criminal justice system
Defamation case notes
Have to prove actual malice - reckless disregard for the truth
Saying the reporter whent into the story with an agenda in mind
Wanted to paint the dean of university is someomne who discouraged Jackie from reporting the assault
Have to decide if her job suffered - this determines the amount of money she gets
Damage was to her reputation - hate mail, hate emails “chief villain” of entire incident
Difficult number to quantify
Jury is looking not only to compensate, but to punish
Libel case notes:
Accuracy was challenged and we were sued
In court for a year
Newspaper has been in the family for 90 years
Consideration of the word pedophile:
rivaled by few words in the English language
Looked at the dictionary
A person who is under 18- our society considers 16-17 year old girls as children, minors
The story never said he commited a crime because the age of consent in Iowa is 16
Did a sidebar piece examining ages of consent in Iowa and surrounding states
We went with the word because we thought it was accurate based on the definition
We never accused him of a crime
We cover minors as children and that’s the prevailing community standard
Never had any concern over a libel suit
If you don’t have the courage to stand up for vulnerable girls, you don’t have any right to stand at a printing press
Before lawsuit: mixed reviews, a number of fathers thought it was a good idea that they ran the story, pushback from other police officers. Police vs the media culture, police ran a sting operation on them, wore a wire to attempt to get information on how they sourced their story
Liability insurance did not cover all the costs
“Fake news” is starting to trickle down to his level, so they are receiving push-back on regular stories
In fear of losing his business for a whole year
Likely to be a little less aggressive while you have a lawsuit over you
Catholic gradeschool teacher in Carrol was involved in an OWI crash - charged with OWI .232 alcohol
Identified her as a Gradeschool Teacher.
You just make a judgement call on whether or not alcohol use and their job could intersect in a way that would be dangerous for people.
Immediately got Carson King references. Stop doing business with them, cancel them, etc.
Cancel culture is a terrible thing for us to deal with in the media.
Church that thinks God hates America
Believes that God hates homosexuals
Picket at military funerals for defending a country that accepts homosexuality
Divorce + remarriage = adultery sign
Baptist church
People mock them
Ashamed of sin
Believes everyone is wrong about morality
His daughter was thrown out of the church for chatting with a boy in the internet
“The government should institute the death penalty for these things”
God sent the shooter sign
“God’s destruction is coming”
Tinker vs Des Moines: Students are persons under Constitution
Students wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War and were suspended from school.
Ruled that students do not shed their constitutional rights at school
Edna Griffin “The Rosa Parks of Iowa”
Reflections:
Court Report:
I’m sure you’ll notice a recurring theme with all of my reflections for this class, but I had such a great time with it! This class really pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me experience things that I probably never would otherwise! Going to watch a court case was a lot of fun. It was eciting to see court in action and it kept me on my toes. Calvin and I were two of only four other people there besides the ones that had to be, so it was a little scary. This was a very entertaining piece to watch and write.
Iowa Supreme Court:
This was difficult! Learning what Supreme Court paperwork looks like- and there’s a lot- is kind of overwhelming. And then to boil it all down into something that everyone can read and understand is even harder. There is a lot of time that goes into reading all of the paperwork and explaining legal terms. I didn’t do the best on this piece, but your comments will help me to know exactly what to do for when we do the U.S. Supreme Court Case paper.
Ride Along:
This was so fun! As you know, I’ve had to turn to the CF Police for help before, so I unlike some people nowadays, have great respect for them and one officer in particular, Kendall Schwan! I got to do my ride-along with him and I had the best time. It didn’t feel like work at all! With him being such a compassionate person as well, it was easy to write a profile on him. The only difficulty was how humble he is! He is the type of person to not see most things he does as not worth writing about, so I had to find questions that would help to reveal how intense and exciting his job can be even if he didn’t feel that way about it himself. A ride along is also something I would have never done without it being assigned to me, and I am grateful for the experience.
U.S. Supreme Court Case:
I feel like I learned a lot from the previous court case assignment, and that made this assignment feel a lot easier. I knew exactly what to look for and how to pull efective quotes. I feel that I did a lot better on this assignment.
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