LAW 938LEC - Trial of Death Penalty Case

This course will be an introduction to a death penalty trial. The course will be based upon a hypothetical case using the Federal procedures. This will be used for learning the death penalty process from the commission of the homicide through the end of the trial. Pretrial preparation, investigation, critical decisions of the prosecution and the defense, grand jury proceedings, pretrial motions, pretrial procedures, tactics, and the bifurcated trials of guilt and sentencing will be analyzed. The special development of sentencing mitigation evidence, the use of experts, the differences between regular criminal trials and capital cases, such as jury selection and the penalty phase of the trial, will be examined. Each student will do a mock jury selection. The final exam will be the delivery of a closing argument for the penalty phase of the trial. Each student will select either a prosecution or defense closing argument.

Credits: 1