Cocaine Possession
Essay by melon29 • September 22, 2013 • Essay • 632 Words (3 Pages) • 3,007 Views
How do you think we should proceed concerning Jones' February 6, 2005 cocaine possession? He will plead guilty unless we send him to federal court. Where do you want to file it?
In this given context, there are three possible courts under which the charges against Jones for possession of Cocaine are admissible, that is, the U.S District Court, the Sedgwick County District Court for the State of Kansas, and the Wichita Municipal Court. Since Jones has helped make my investigations a success, it would be in order to show him some amnesty and not file the case in a federal court. Perhaps changing the charge to a drug paraphernalia offense and sending his case to the city of Wichita is the best option. By changing the cocaine possession case to a drug paraphernalia case, it qualifies to be a minor criminal case that a municipal court has jurisdiction over (Mayer, 1997; Law Offices of Ian Herzog v. Law Offices of Joseph M. Fredrics, 1998). In addition, the amounts of cocaine that Jones was in possession of is not specified and as such, it can easily be qualified as a drug paraphernalia case and attract light charges or fines of less amounts as a way of thanking him for his cooperation (Theoharis, n.d). Suppose Jones pleads guilty, it is possible to refer the case to the Sedgwick County District Court for the State of Kansas, which qualifies to be a federal circuit court within the same county to handle the case (Clark et al., 1930). U.S District Courts have the powers to reduce charges which would similarly help Jones (Shermer & Johnson, 2010).
Where I want to File the Case against Smith
Looking at the case of Smith, it is clear that the only weakness that arises is the fact that there is no adequate evidence that can be used to convict him. Since he has refused to sell the drug any more to either Jones or the undercover officers, it is possible to deduce that a question of fact as to whether Smith is selling the drug or not arises (Choi, Gulati & Posner, 2012. Similarly, being in possession of cocaine raises a question in regard to law. In this given context, there is a question as to whether the defendant has committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt and similarly a question concerning the admissibility of the evidence that would be presented by the undercover agents. This case qualifies to be categorised under those that seek to answer questions of fact and law, therefore worth filing in a federal district court (Georgia Tech Research Corporation, 2003; Choi, Gulati & Posner, 2012). As such, it would be best to file it at the U.S District Court because it is only in a federal district court that federal judges decide questions of law by issuing search warrants to further support court evidences and answer questions of fact by use of a jury, or by any other federal judge in a bench trial (Georgia Tech Research Corporation, 2003; Carp, Stidham & Manning, 2013).
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