Trumpets

The movie that we watched this week was really good. The way that Gideon petitioned his case and why. The principles established however need to be worked on. Under the sixth amendment Americans should have the right to counsel and because of Gideon v. Wainwright this is now able to occur for the most part. One thing that this doesn't completely cover is the competence of the council you are given. I have previously worked in the District Attorney's Office of New York and I was able to view some of the defense council that lacked competence and care for the case. Some of the defense attorney did not even put up the effort needed to win some cases that could have been won. As a society what could we do that could ensure that the precedent in Gideon v. Wainwright be upheld and better improved to benefit our society better?

Death means ?

My grandmother passed this past weekend and something came up in a conversation that left me rather curious. When two people are married after the spouse dies the other gets rights I understand that. But what about their actual blood family? If a person doesn't write a will but everyone knows the possessions they are supposed to get should their spouse have the right to withhold that from them because of a law? Does jurisprudence have more of a right to be upheld or does the person who knows it belongs to them have a moral obligation to take what is theirs? Should family matters even be a thing decided by law?

Mens Rea ?

Today in class we were discussing the thought of mens rea and it's position in the law. From my understanding the concept of mens rea is essentially being able to determine if the person committing the action is guilty at mind. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong. It seems to me that mens rea is needed in a society but its usage prevents the society from being progressive. For my paper what I would like my thesis to explain is why mens rea hinders our society because it does not ultimately help the individual, it leaves a continuous cycle that eventually needs to be dealt with. What suggestions do you have that can support the argument that mens rea is a double standard in society that should be subject to revisions in order to retain autonomy?