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Extenuating Circumstances
In criminal law, a mitigating factor, also known as an extenuating circumstance, is any information or evidence (law), evidence presented to the court regarding the defendant or the circumstances of the crime that might result in reduced charges or a lesser sentence. Unlike a Defense (legal), legal defense, the presentation of mitigating factors will not result in the acquittal of a defendant. The opposite of a mitigating factor is an Aggravation (law), aggravating factor. Examples The Sentencing Council of England and Wales lists the following as possible mitigating factors: *Admitting the offense, such as through a Plea, guilty plea *Mental illness *Provocation (legal), Provocation *Young age *Showing remorse Self-defense is a Defense (legal), legal defense rather than a mitigating factor, as an act done in justified self-defense is not deemed to be a crime. If the offender was provoked but cannot be considered to have acted in self-defense, then the provocation can be used as a ...
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Criminal Law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law is established by statute, which is to say that the laws are enacted by a legislature. Criminal law includes the punishment and Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of people who violate such laws. Criminal law varies according to jurisdiction, and differs from Civil law (common law), civil law, where emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim compensation, rather than on punishment or Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation. Criminal procedure is a formalized official activity that authenticates the fact of commission of a crime and authorizes punitive or rehabilitative treatment of the Criminal, offender. History The first Civilization, civilizations generally did not distinguish between Civil law (area), civil law and ...
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Stress (medicine)
Stress, whether physiological, biological or psychological, is an organism's response to a stressor, such as an environmental condition or change in life circumstances. When stressed by stimuli that alter an organism's environment, multiple systems respond across the body. In humans and most mammals, the autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are the two major systems that respond to stress. Two well-known hormones that humans produce during stressful situations are adrenaline and cortisol. The sympathoadrenal medullary axis (SAM) may activate the fight-or-flight response through the sympathetic nervous system, which dedicates energy to more relevant bodily systems to acute adaptation to stress, while the parasympathetic nervous system returns the body to homeostasis. The second major physiological stress-response center, the HPA axis, regulates the release of cortisol, which influences many bodily functions, such as metabolic, psychologica ...
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Jury Instructions
Jury instructions, also known as charges or directions, are a set of legal guidelines given by a judge to a jury in a court of law. They are an important procedural step in a trial by jury, and as such are a cornerstone of criminal process in many common law countries. The purpose of instructions are to inform the jury about the legal principles and standards that they must apply in order to reach a verdict. This ensures that criminal trials are fair and lawful. They are typically delivered after closing arguments, but sometimes may be delivered mid-trial if necessary. In some cases, the instructions given by a judge to the jury are incorrect, which may (depending on the issue) result in a mistrial. Content of jury instructions Jury instructions often cover the following issues: *Introduction to the trial process: An overview of the trial process, the roles of the judge, jury, attorneys, and witnesses, and the importance of the jury's role in the legal system. *Explanation ...
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Bigby V
Bigby may refer to: Places * Bigby, Lincolnshire, one of the Thankful Villages in Lincolnshire, England People * Atari Bigby, American football player * Larry Bigbie, American baseball player Fictional characters * Ned Bigby, title character of Nickelodeon's sitcom, ''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' * Bigby, a character in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game's setting of Greyhawk * Bigby Wolf, from the comic book series ''Fables'' Businesses * Biggby Coffee Biggby Coffee (pronounced "big B") is an American coffeehouse franchise based in Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1995 in the city of East Lansing, Michigan, by Bob Fish and Mary Roszel as Beaner's Coffee. By the end of the 1 ...
, a coffee franchise business {{Disambig, surname ...
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United States Court Of Appeals For The Fifth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * Middle District of Louisiana * Western District of Louisiana * Northern District of Mississippi * Southern District of Mississippi * Eastern District of Texas * Northern District of Texas * Southern District of Texas * Western District of Texas The Fifth Circuit has 17 active judgeships, and is headquartered at the John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the clerk's office located at the F. Edward Hebert Federal Building in New Orleans. Originally, the Fifth Circuit also included the federal district courts in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. In 1981, the district courts for those states were transferred to the newly created U.S. Court of Appea ...
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Penry V
Penry may refer to: Surname * David Penry-Davey (1942–2015), Judge of the High Court of England and Wales *John Penry John Penry (1563 – 29 May 1593) was executed for high treason during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He is Wales' most famous Protestant Separatist martyr. Early life Penry was born in Brecknockshire, Wales; Cefn Brith, a farm near Llangamma ... (1559–1593), Welsh Protestant * Johnny Paul Penry (born 1956), American rapist * Josh Penry (born 1976) American politician * Mary Penry (1735–1804), Welsh-born woman in colonial Pennsylvania * Peter Penry-Jones (1938–2009), Welsh actor * Richard Allen Penry (1948–1994), United States Army soldier * Rupert Penry-Jones (born 1970), English actor Given name * Penry Powell Palfrey (1830–1902), British stained glass designer and painter * Penry Williams (1866–1945), English politician * Penry Williams (artist) (1802–1885), Welsh artist * Penry Williams (historian) (1925–2013), Welsh historian * Penr ...
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United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitution delineates the frame of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. The Constitution's first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, in which the federal government is divided into three branches: the United States Congress, legislative, consisting of the bicameralism, bicameral Congress (Article One of the United States Constitution, Article I); the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive, consisting of the President of the United States, president and subordinate officers (Article Two of the United States Constitution, Article II); and the Federal judiciary of the United States, judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court of the Unit ...
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Eighth Amendment To The United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) to the United States Constitution protects against imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the United States Bill of Rights. The amendment serves as a limitation upon the state or federal government to impose unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants before and after a conviction. This limitation applies equally to the price for obtaining pretrial release and the punishment for crime after conviction. The phrases in this amendment originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689. The prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments has led courts to hold that the Constitution totally prohibits certain kinds of punishment, such as drawing and quartering. Under the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause, the Supreme Court has struck down the application of capital punishment in some instances, but capital punishment is still perm ...
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Supreme Court Of The United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over State court (United States), state court cases that turn on questions of Constitution of the United States, U.S. constitutional or Law of the United States, federal law. It also has Original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States, original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." In 1803, the Court asserted itself the power of Judicial review in the United States, judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution via the landmark case ''Marbury v. Madison''. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or s ...
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Capital Punishment In The United States
In the United States, capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states (of which two, Oregon and Wyoming, do not currently have any inmates sentenced to death), throughout the country at the federal level, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in the other 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 21 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 6, subject to moratoriums. As of 2025, of the 38 OECD member countries, three (the United States, Japan and South Korea) retain the death penalty. South Korea has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997. Thus, Japan and Taiwan are the only other advanced democracies with capital punishment. In both countries, the death penalty remains qui ...
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Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law, U.S. constitutional and American criminal law, criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst. Dershowitz has taken on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients. As of 2009, he had won 13 of the 15 murder and attempted murder cases he handled as a Criminal law, criminal appellate lawyer. Dershowitz has represented such celebrity clients as Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, Leona Helmsley, Julian Assange, and Jim Bakker. Major legal victories have included two successful appeals that overturned convictions, first for Harry Reems in 1976, then in 1984 for Claus von Bülow, who had been convicted of the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny von Bülow, Sunny. In 1995, Dersh ...
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Mens Rea
In criminal law, (; Law Latin for "guilty mind") is the mental state of a defendant who is accused of committing a crime. In common law jurisdictions, most crimes require proof both of ''mens rea'' and '' actus reus'' ("guilty act") before the defendant can be found guilty. Introduction The standard common law test of criminal liability is expressed in the Latin phrase ,1 Subst. Crim. L. § 5.1(a) (3d ed.) i.e. "the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty". As a general rule, someone who acted without mental fault is not liable in criminal law.". . . a person is not guilty of an offense unless he acted purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently, as the law may require, with respect to each material element of the offense." Model Penal Code § 2.02(1) Exceptions are known as strict liability crimes.21 Am. Jur. 2d Criminal Law § 127 Moreover, when a person intends a harm, but as a result of bad aim or other cause the intent is transferred from an intended victi ...
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