Facts:
Alex was in his friend Allison’s home in Boulder, Colorado drinking straight vodka and doing drugs. Alex told Allison that he has not taken his prescribed mental health medications for two weeks. This did not concern Allison until Alex started discussing his plan to kill his father. Allison knew that without his prescribed medication, Alex could be psychotic. When Allison said she would call the police, Alex pulled a handgun out of his bag and threatened her with it. Allison, who feared for her life, fled from her home with the intention of going to a neighbor’s house to call the police. As soon as Allison left, Alex stuffed a rag in the half-empty vodka bottle, lit it, and tossed it on the couch as he left the dwelling. Allison’s dwelling went up in flames.
Alex then proceeded to the nearest convenience store, where, brandishing the weapon, he took money and cigarettes. Alex then drove to the home of his father, where he broke down the door by kicking it in and shot his father to death.
The local police arrived shortly after that to find Alex unconscious on the living room floor. When the police revived Alex, Alex said he had no memory of the last several hours. Local police took Alex to their headquarters in handcuffs, where they interrogated him. After 10 hours of interrogation, Alex confessed to killing his father. Local police, however, forgot to read Alex his Miranda rights.
Note that the Unit 6 Assignment requires a discussion of the two strongest defenses to the crimes Alex committed (as you mapped out in your Unit 6 Assignment). The crimes could be based on Colorado statutory law or if you choose to bring up the defense of the failure of police to read Miranda Warnings prior to interrogating Alex, this would be based on constitutional law (see the sources noted above). Be sure to point to the relevant Colorado statute or constitutional law for each defense you identify that would apply to one or more of the crimes in this scenario and describe how defense counsel would go about trying to prove this defense. The best approach is to quote the relevant portion of the statute setting forth the defense (remember to use ellipses (the three dots …) to omit words that are not relevant in the statute) and always place quotation marks around any wording directly from the statue or other source.) Your paper should be at least 2 pages, double-spaced and should include the required in-text citations and references:
Colorado statutes are cited in this format:
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-1-803
Here are the criminal statutes setting forth potential relevant defenses for Alex under Colorado law: https://casetext.com/statute/colorado-revised-statutes/title-18-criminal-code/article-1-provisions-applicable-to-offenses-generally/part-8-responsibility (Alex’s best chances for mitigation are under 18-1-803 (Impaired mental condition) and 18-1-804 (Intoxication)).
Here’s the Cornell Law site, An Introduction to Basic Legal Citation at: https://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/ – it has awesome explanations of how to cite all types of legal sources and has plenty of examples to illustrate.
