Legal Writing Assignment: Write your legal opinion on the Speluncean Explorers
Submitted during my First Year in Law School
I hold that these men are not guilty because the phrase “willingly take the life of another1“ does not apply to their case.
When these men were rescued from the cave, it was learned that they killed and ate Whetmore on the twenty-third day.
What happens to the brain without food for twenty-three days? In the throes of extreme starvation, the human brain suffers neuronal death.2 The word “willfully” absorbs the notion that a killer is in the complete use of his volition in the context of a non-exceptional environment. This case is phenomenal. Although it appears that these men cast dice and invoked a breach of faith, this evidence is not sufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were lucid. In dubio pro reo. Such hunger is so rare in the realms of law and medicine that we have no complete understanding of how it affects the brain. Such an environment is unprecedented in the envisages of this court.
I am shocked at the hasty conclusion of my brother, Justice Tatting, when he reasoned that these men had great deliberation and afterhours of discussing.3 He skipped scrutinizing their mental and environmental state. In the Valjean case, the accused’s willpower is of the cognitive kind when he stole the bread due to hunger, not one that was chemically altered as these men had. If not, then we must also execute idiots or imbeciles, insane, and children who kill others.
Impending death in the cave and Whetmore’s deadly idea of cannibalism were forces so formidable that induced the actors to act under duress. Besides, what precludes us to think that Whetmore intended to eat them in the first place? Index animi sermo est. Words reveal criminal intent.
I vote to acquit these men upon this statutory construction.
Other assignments:
LEGAL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS, NOTICES, AND DEADLINES
- One-page legal essay based on the submitted outline. This is due on April 22, 2021;
- One-page memorandum addressed to the Mayor of Omelas. This is your opinion as retained counsel on the case brought against the city for human rights violation. This is due on April 24, 2021;
- The one page judicial opinion on the Speluncean Explorers. This is due on May 3, 2021. Each of your classmates must receive an electronic copy (whether in compilation form or otherwise) on the same day;
- The legal writing workshop on the Speluncean Explorers will take place on two different dates, May 8 and May 15, 2021, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. The workshop will start promptly. Students are required to participate actively in the discussion.
- There will be no classes on April 24, 2021 and May 1, 2021 (except upon request for consultation which could likewise be done through Messenger).
English