Criminal Defense Case Study

According to the textbook, CJ4, the four most crucial justification criminal defenses are Duress, Justifiable use of Force, Necessity, and Entrapment. Duress, as a definition, is when a person commits a crime against their own will (Gaines & Miller, 2015, p. 64). An example of this is the case, Dixon v. United States; in this case, Dixon provides false information to a gun dealer, and as a result was able to purchase seven firearms (Cornell University Law School, 2006). In this case, she is claiming to have been under duress. To better explain, according to Dixon’s statement, she only purchased the weapons because her boyfriend threaded to kill her and her three daughters (Cornell University Law School, 2006). Moving on, Justifiable use of
64). An example of this is the case of Nancy Seaman, Nancy claimed to the court that her husband, Bob, picked up a kitchen knife and chased her into the garage. Nancy in fear of her life grabbed an ax and proceeded to kill her husband (United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan South Division, 2010). Although she was unsuccessful in justifying her use of forces, this is still a good example of how someone can appeal to the court a case of self-defense. In addition, the Necessity Defense is used when the person commits a crime to avoid a larger or more dangerous crime from being committed. An example of this is the appellee of Terelle Young vs. The State of Indiana. In this case, Young fled the scene of an automobile accident, which caused injury to a woman in the opposite vehicle (In the Court Appeals of Indiana, 2014). During Mr. Young’s appeal, he stated that he only left the scene of the accident because he was in fear that the owner of the other vehicle was going to seriously harm him (In the Court Appeals of Indiana, 2014). In this case, Terelle Young did not prove his Necessity Defense (In the Court Appeals of Indiana,