Criminal Law Case Study: Sentencing, Defenses, and Case Analysis

This case study presents a defense for Ms. Annabelle Black, who pleaded guilty to assaulting her common-law partner. The defense highlights her troubled indigenous background, history of abuse and addiction, and the influence of alcohol during the assault. Mitigating factors include a disturbed ch...Read More

Running head: CRIMINAL LAW 1
Criminal law

CRIMINAL LAW 2
Table of Contents
Opening argument......................................................................................................................3
Background of the client............................................................................................................3
Submissions of defense..............................................................................................................3
Mitigating/ aggravating facts.....................................................................................................4
Case Laws..................................................................................................................................6
Closing argument.......................................................................................................................8
Purpose of sentencing and legal principles............................................................................8
Kind of sentence and reason..................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Opening argument
My client Ms Annabelle Black wishes to enter a plea of guilty on grounds of assault
of her common law partner Mr. Simon Burgess.
Background of the client
My client Ms Annabelle Black belongs to an indigenous community tracing roots to
Attawapiskat. The community has a huge level of suicide amongst its people.
Due to indigenous background, her grandfather was treated in a derogatory manner in
residential school.
Due to her indigenous background, Ms Annabelle Black may have been subjected to
derogatory treatment as exemplified by the incident which occurred with her grandfather in
school (Redlich, Bibas, Edkins & Madon, 2017). As a result, she has been sentenced by youth
court for assault with weapon, assault in order to prevent being arrested, theft of five
thousand dollars, driving with blood alcohol content of eighty milligram and possession of
substance which is controlled in nature (Lithopoulos & Ruddell, 2016).
It is observed and presumed that the reason for these offences may be an outcome of
her troubled childhood. The main factor is her addiction to alcohol.
In order to overcome the trauma undergone by her, she is consulting with the elders
associated with the Peel Aboriginal Network.

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Submissions of defense
My client Ms Annabelle Black has been charged with assault under Section 266 of the
Criminal Code of Canada.
During the assault, she was under the influence of alcohol. She also suspected her
common law partner Mr. Simon Burgess cheating on her as per the sexually explicit text
messages on his phone by another woman.
It is implied that the key factor in such a matter was alcohol. Sub-section 1 of Section
16 of the Criminal Code of Canada implies that any act committed or omission made by a
person during an impairment of the overall mental health of the person shall not be deemed as
a crime. However, Sub-section 2 of Section 16 of the Criminal Code of Canada implies that
the aspect related to the balance of probabilities would have the key role to play as far as the
presumption of mental disorder of a person is concerned with regard to the crime. It is
observed and established from the facts that the that my client Ms Annabelle Black was under
the influence of alcohol which is no different from mental disorder when she assaulted her
common law partner Mr. Simon Burgess (Zottoli & Daftary-Kapur, 2019).
My client Ms Annabelle Black was arrested only when the landlord called the police
after witnessing the incident due to the noise and the head injury of Mr. Simon Burgess who
told the police about the assault.
Mitigating/ aggravating facts
My client Ms Annabelle Black had an extremely disturbed childhood. She witnessed
her grandfather commit suicide by killing himself.
She started consuming alcohol at the age of nine.

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She has parted ways with her parents and family members due to a huge level of
resentment towards them.
Her parents are heavily indulged in the consumption of alcohol and intoxicating drugs
which has had a negative influence over her to a considerable level.
At the age of ten, she attempted to commit suicide.
She has also been victimized due to sexual assault. However, such an aspect has never
been reported to the police by her (Perreault, 2015).
When she met her common law partner Mr. Simon Burgess on the streets recently,
she started of with the troubled relationship with him again.
She further claims that throughout the relationship, Mr. Simon Burgess has been
extremely abusive. However, he wishes to reconcile with her due to the welfare of their two
children.
The supervision with regard to the parenting of the two children is carried out by a
worker associated with Children’s Aid Society of Ontario, Canada.
Due to alcoholism, she was inducted in an organization related to foster care at
Toronto, which is at considerable distance from her native place Attawapiskat.
She has also fled many shelter homes and lived on streets for around four to six
months.
Her issues related to alcoholism are being addressed by the Peel Aboriginal Network
by the virtue of counseling. Such an organization has been established in order to provide
welfare and support services to indigenous people in the region of Peel at the Canadian
province of Ontario (Yamamoto, Maeder & Fenwick, 2017).

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Section 718 (a) (ii) of the Criminal Code of Canada implies that any sentence with
regard to assault must be reduced by the court of competent jurisdiction if it is established
from the facts that the assault was committed as a result of the abuse by a spouse or a
common law partner (Marinos & Gregory, 2016).
Section 718 (a) (i) of the Criminal Code of Canada states that any sentence pertaining
to assault must be reduced by the court of competent jurisdiction if it is established from the
chain of events that the assault was committed as a result of the bias towards, ethnic origin,
gender, sexual orientation, language, disability or any other similar kind of discriminatory
aspect (Reasons, et al., 2015).
Case Laws
In the case of R v. Wong, the accused Wong was not informed of the consequences of
entering into guilty plea which implies the loss of status as a permanent resident of Canada as
per the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2001 (Abraham & Tastsoglou, 2016). The
guilty plea was entered into by Wong as a result of the charges framed against him on
grounds of the trafficking of the dangerous drug cocaine in accordance with Sub-section 1 of
Section 5 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act of 1996. In this case it was held by the
Supreme Court of Canada that the guilty plea must be set aside as it would result in the
contravention of principles related to natural justice taking account of Sub-section 1 of
Section 686 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Wong filed an appeal at the Supreme Court of
Canada due to the dismissal of his appeal by the Court of Appeal for British Columbia (Kelly
& Puddister, 2017). As a result, it is observed that the Court of Appeal for British Columbia
made a grievous error of law by dismissing the appeal of Wong with regard to guilty plea.
The Supreme Court of Canada laid emphasis over the aspect of circumstantial evidence and
its importance.

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In the case of R v. Anthony-Cook, the accused Anthony-Cook has issues related to
mental health and drug abuse. He entered into guilty plea for manslaughter and was
subsequently sentenced to custody for a period of eighteen months. Prior to the
commencement of trial, he had already served in custody for eleven months. In order to
address the issues related to mental health and drug abuse, he used to visit an organization at
Vancouver (Crocker, et al., 2015). The manslaughter concerns about the punching of a
volunteer at the organization who eventually fell and died. The joint submission with regard
to guilty plea was set aside by the Supreme Court of British Columbia on grounds that such a
sentence is in adequate. Additionally, the Supreme Court of British Columbia enhanced the
sentence of Anthony-Cook which included custody for a period of two years along with
probation for a period of three years (Wynbrandt, 2016). In this case it was held by the
Supreme Court of Canada that courts must apply the public interest test with regard to
enhancement or reduction of custodial sentences. The key aspect in this regard is the merits
of the case which is based on the facts and circumstances along with the projected outcomes.
In the case of R v Shiwprasad, the accused Shiwprasad entered into guilty plea for
fourteen offences. He was not only sentenced to custody but was also deemed to be
inadmissible to Canada as implied by Sub-section 1 of Section 36 of the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act of 2001. When a removal order was passed against him with regard
to deportation, he filed an appeal with the Immigration Appeal Division of the Immigration
and Refugee Board of Canada. The accused claimed to be unaware of the consequences to be
followed as a result of entering into guilty plea (Fairfax, 2015). In this case it was held by the
Court of Appeal for Ontario that the accused very well knew that he was being deported. As a
result, there has been no breach of principles related to natural justice as far as fairness is
concerned with regard to the information concerning the outcomes of entering into guilty
plea. As a result, the appeal filed by the accused Shiwprasad was eventually dismissed by the

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Court of Appeal for Ontario and the order relating to the deportation of the accused
Shiwprasad was validated accordingly.
Closing argument
It is humbly prayed before the honorable court that the circumstances in which assault
has been committed by my client Ms Annabelle Black must be taken into account.
Purpose of sentencing and legal principles
The purpose of sentencing with regard to probation would involve the application of
the public interest test as implied by the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court of Canada
in the case of R v. Anthony-Cook as far as the legal principles are concerned. The principles
enshrined by Section 718 of the Criminal Code of Canada must be taken into consideration
with regard to mitigating circumstances. The principles as per the provision imply the
separation of offenders from dangerous criminals and to rehabilitate the offenders.
Kind of sentence and reason
Sentence such as probation would help in the undertaking of a correctional approach
towards my client Ms Annabelle Black as it would not imply the difficulties involved in
terms of imprisonment. A comprehensive solution must be presented to my client Ms
Annabelle Black in the interest of equity, justice and good conscience.

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References
Abraham, M., & Tastsoglou, E. (2016). Addressing domestic violence in Canada and the
United States: The uneasy co-habitation of women and the state. Current
sociology, 64(4), 568-585.
Crocker, A. G., Charette, Y., Seto, M. C., Nicholls, T. L., Côté, G., & Caulet, M. (2015). The
National Trajectory Project of individuals found not criminally responsible on account
of mental disorder in Canada. Part 3: trajectories and outcomes through the forensic
system. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 60(3), 117-126.
Fairfax Jr, R. A. (2015). Thinking outside the jury box: deploying the grand jury in the guilty
plea process. Wm. & Mary L. Rev., 57, 1395.
Kelly, J. B., & Puddister, K. (2017). Criminal Justice Policy During the Harper Era: Private
Member’s Bills, Penal Populism, and the Criminal Code of Canada. Canadian
Journal of Law & Society/La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 32(3), 391-415.
Lithopoulos, S., & Ruddell, R. (2016). Crime, Criminal Justice, and Aboriginal
Canadians. Criminal Justice in Canada: A Reader.
Marinos, V., & Gregory, D. (2016). The Tale of a Youth Guilty Plea Court & a Youth Mental
Health Court in Ontario: How Different Are They in Practice. Int'l J. Therapeutic
Juris., 2, 25.
Perreault, S. (2015). Criminal victimization in Canada, 2014. Juristat, 35(1), 1-43.
Reasons, C., Hassan, S., Ma, M., Monchalin, L., Bige, M., Paras, C., & Arora, S. (2016).
Race and Criminal Justice in Canada. International Journal of Criminal Justice
Sciences, 11(2).

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Redlich, A. D., Bibas, S., Edkins, V. A., & Madon, S. (2017). The psychology of defendant
plea decision making. American Psychologist, 72(4), 339.
Wynbrandt, K. (2016). From False Evidence Ploy to False Guilty Plea: An Unjustified Path
to Securing Convictions. Yale LJ, 126, 545.
Yamamoto, S., Maeder, E. M., & Fenwick, K. L. (2017). Criminal responsibility in Canada:
Mental disorder stigma education and the insanity defense. International Journal of
Forensic Mental Health, 16(4), 313-335.
Zottoli, T., & Daftary-Kapur, T. (2019). Guilty Pleas of Youths and Adults. Law and Human
Behavior, 43(2), 166-179.