Assignment: Psychology and the Law Case Study

• Suppose you are the judge responsible for sentencing Jason Miller, a 20 year-old man convicted of robbing a convenience store. At trial, the prosecution showed that Jason was the getaway driver for his older brother and another man (both of whom had lengthy criminal histories). Jason was not armed and did not have any interaction with anyone inside the store. The other two men brandished firearms and struck the clerk, causing severe head trauma. Jason’s attorney presented evidence at his sentencing hearing that Jason had only been arrested once before for stealing a cell phone from another student in high school; Jason had successfully completed diversion for that offense. His attorney also presented evidence that Jason had maintained a job for two years after high school graduation as a construction worker. In your jurisdiction, you have the option of sentencing Jason to prison (for 1-25 years) or to probation (for up to five years). How would you determine an appropriate sentence for Jason?
• Becky Williams works on a road crew for the City of Palm Springs. She often works early in the morning to repair potholes on the busy streets. One day, a vehicle sped through the construction zone and veered off the road, pinning Becky between the vehicle
  

  and a work truck. Becky was trapped for an hour while emergency crews freed her. As a result of the incident, Becky suffered tremendous physical damages, including the amputation of both of her legs. Becky filed a civil suit; her attorney asked for damages to compensate Becky for her physical injuries as well as for the trauma caused by the accident. At the trial, evidence was presented as to the medical costs, lost wages, and loss of future earning capacities. Discuss any issues Becky’s attorney may have in presenting her case for psychological injuries.

• Plea bargaining is encouraged in the criminal system for many reasons. It can help reduce the caseload, eliminate the need for victims to testify, result in charges being dropped for a defendant, and can secure a defendant’s testimony against co-defendants. Plea bargaining does not occur in every case. Those defendants who instead request a trial are sentenced to prison at a higher rate than those who accept a plea bargain. Consider the role of the judge in sentencing. Explain why a judge may sentence a defendant who is convicted of a crime after trial more harshly than one who accepted a plea bargain for the same charge.
• In 2016, a jury in Omaha, Nebraska convicted Anthony Garcia in two separate double murders. The first occurred in 2008 and involved the slaying of a nanny and an 11-year-old boy. The second occurred in 2013 and involved a retired doctor and his wife. Defense attorneys requested that the trial be moved outside of the Omaha area due to the extensive media coverage; that request was denied. Given the information you have studied about juror bias, describe the type of information that the defense should have presented to the judge in support of their request.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource