Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ebffiledoc - 569download PDF Criminal Law Twelth Edition Joel Samaha Ebook Full Chapter
Ebffiledoc - 569download PDF Criminal Law Twelth Edition Joel Samaha Ebook Full Chapter
Samaha
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/criminal-law-twelth-edition-joel-samaha/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
https://textbookfull.com/product/criminal-law-11th-edition-
catherine-elliott/
https://textbookfull.com/product/acing-criminal-law-3rd-edition-
john-burkoff/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-preventive-turn-in-criminal-
law-first-edition-carvalho/
https://textbookfull.com/product/constitutional-law-for-criminal-
justice-16th-edition-jacqueline-r-kanovitz/
The new histories of international criminal law :
retrials First Edition Tallgren
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-new-histories-of-
international-criminal-law-retrials-first-edition-tallgren/
https://textbookfull.com/product/criminal-procedure-law-and-
practice-tenth-edition-student-edition-edition-del-carmen/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-future-of-mental-health-
disability-and-criminal-law-1st-edition-wilson/
https://textbookfull.com/product/governance-beyond-the-law-the-
immoral-the-illegal-the-criminal-abel-polese/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-palgrave-handbook-of-
applied-ethics-and-the-criminal-law-larry-alexander/
Criminal Law
12th
edition
Joel Samaha
Horace T. Morse Distinguished Teaching Professor
University of Minnesota
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
This is an electronic version of the print textbook. Due to electronic rights restrictions, some third party content may be suppressed. Editorial
review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. The publisher reserves the right to
remove content from this title at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. For valuable information on pricing, previous
editions, changes to current editions, and alternate formats, please visit www.cengage.com/highered to search by
ISBN#, author, title, or keyword for materials in your areas of interest.
Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the eBook version.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition © 2017, 2015 Cengage Learning
Joel Samaha
WCN: 02-200-203
Product Director: Marta Lee-Perriard
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright
Senior Product Manager: herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form
Carolyn Henderson Meier or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not
Associate Content Developer: Julia White limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web
Product Assistant: Valerie Kraus distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval
systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976
Senior Marketing Manager: Kara Kindstrom United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of
Senior Content Project Manager: the publisher.
Christy Frame
Managing Art Director: Andrei Pasternak For product information and technology assistance, contact us at
Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706.
Senior Manufacturing Planner: Judy Inouye
For permission to use material from this text or product,
Text Researcher: Kanchana Vijayarangan,
submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions.
Lumina Datamatics
Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to
Production Service/Compositor: Cenveo® permissionrequest@cengage.com.
Publisher Services
Text and Cover Designer: Diane Beasley Library of Congress Control Number: 2015949002
Cover Image: alancrosthwaite/istockphoto
Student Edition:
ISBN: 978-1-305-57738-1
Looseleaf Edition:
ISBN: 978-1-305-66017-5
Cengage Learning
20 Channel Center Street
Boston MA 02210
USA
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
For My Students
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Brief Contents
Chapter 1 Criminal Law and Punishment in U.S. Society: An Overview 2
Glossary 544
Bibliography 554
Case Index 564
Index 568
iv
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Contents
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
vi contents
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
contents vii
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
viii contents
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
contents ix
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Preface
C riminal Law was my favorite class as a first-year law student at Northwestern Uni-
versity Law School in 1958. I’ve loved it ever since, a love that has only grown
from teaching it at least once a year at the University of Minnesota since 1971. I hope
my love of the subject comes through in Criminal Law, which I’ve just finished for the
twelfth time. It’s a great source of satisfaction that my modest innovation to the study
of criminal law—the text-casebook—has endured and flourished. Criminal Law, the
text-casebook, brings together the description, analysis, and critique of general prin-
ciples with excerpts of cases edited for nonlawyers.
Like its predecessors, Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition, stresses both the general prin-
ciples that apply to all of criminal law and the specific elements of particular crimes
that prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Learning the principles of
criminal law isn’t just a good mental exercise, although it does stimulate students to
use their minds. Understanding the general principles is an indispensable prerequisite
for understanding the elements of specific crimes. The general principles have lasted for
centuries. The definitions of the elements of specific crimes, on the other hand, differ
from state to state and over time because they have to meet the varied and changing
needs of new times and different places.
That the principles have stood the test of time testifies to their strength as a frame-
work for explaining the elements of crimes defined in the fifty states and in the U.S.
criminal code. But there’s more to their importance than durability; it’s also practical to
know and understand them. The general principles are the bases both of the elements
that prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to convict defendants and of
the defenses that justify or excuse defendants’ criminal conduct.
So Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition, rests on a solid foundation. But it can’t stand
still, any more than the subject of criminal law can remain frozen in time. The more
I teach and write about criminal law, the more I learn and rethink what I’ve already
learned; the more “good” cases I find that I didn’t know were there; and the more I’m
able to include cases that weren’t decided and reported when the previous edition went
to press.
Of course, it’s my obligation to incorporate into the twelfth edition these now-
decided and reported cases, and this new learning, rethinking, and discovery. But ob-
ligation doesn’t describe the pleasure that preparing now twelve editions of Criminal
Law brings me. It’s thrilling to find cases that illustrate a principle in terms students can
understand and that stimulate them to think critically about subjects worth thinking
about. It’s that thrill that drives me to make each edition better than the last. I hope
it will make my students—and you—more intelligent consumers of the law and social
reality of criminal law in the U.S. constitutional democracy.
Organization/Approach
The chapters in the text organize the criminal law into a traditional scheme that is
widely accepted and can embrace, with minor adjustments, the criminal law of any
state and/or the federal government. The logic of the arrangement is first to cover the
general part of the criminal law—namely, principles and doctrines common to all or
most crimes—and then the special part of criminal law—namely, the application of the
x general principles to the elements of specific crimes.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
preface xi
Chapters 1 through 8 cover the general part of criminal law: the sources and pur-
poses of criminal law and criminal punishment; the constitutional limits on the criminal
law; the general principles of criminal liability; the defenses of justification and excuse;
parties to crime; and incomplete crimes.
Chapters 9 through 13 cover the special part of the criminal law: the major crimes
against persons; crimes against homes and property; crimes against public order and
morals; and crimes against the state.
Criminal Law has always followed the three-step analysis of criminal liability
(criminal conduct, justification, and excuse). Criminal Law brings this analysis into
sharp focus in two ways. First, the chapter sequence: Chapters 3 and 4 cover the general
principles of criminal conduct (criminal act, criminal intent, concurrence, and causa-
tion). Chapter 5 covers the defenses of justification, the second step in the analysis of
criminal liability. Chapter 6 covers the defenses of excuse, the third step. So the chapter
sequence mirrors precisely the three-step analysis of criminal liability.
Criminal Law also sharpens the focus on the three-step analysis by means of the
two kinds of Elements of Crime art. First are criminal conduct crime boxes, consisting
of a voluntary criminal act triggered by criminal intent. Second are bad result crimes,
consisting of a voluntary criminal act, criminal intent, and causing a criminal harm.
The design of these boxes is consistent throughout the book. The elements boxes
go right to the core of the three-step analysis of criminal liability, making it easier for
students to master the essence of criminal law: applying general principles to specific
individual crimes.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xii preface
Throughout the book are also new charts and tables, and all retained graphics are
updated to reflect the most recent information available. Here are the highlights of the
changes in each chapter.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
preface xiii
• Case Excerpts
—— State v. Newman (2013) “Did ‘sleep driving’ nullify the voluntary act require-
ment?”
—— People v. Levy (2011) “Did his conduct ‘include a voluntary act’?”
—— Williams v. State (2013) “Did she possess cannabis with the intent to sell, man-
ufacture, or deliver it?”
• You Decide
—— “Is ‘sleep sex’ a voluntary act?”
—— “Did he kill during ‘insulin shock’?”
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xiv preface
• You Decide
—— “Do the new castle laws protect the right to defend or provide a license to
kill?”
—— “Was burglary the lesser evil?”
—— “Can she consent to being assaulted?”
—— “Can he consent to being shot?”
Revised
• Sections
—— “Proving Defenses” Rewritten to clarify differences between perfect and imper-
fect defenses and how to prove them.
—— “Choice of Evils” Rewritten to clarify and improve the elements and history of
the “general defense of necessity.”
• Case Excerpt State v. Stewart (1988) Major addition to dissent to expand on bat-
tered woman defense evidence.
Revised
• Sections
—— “The Insanity Defense” Revision to update and focus on the myth (fakers get
away with murder) and reality (defendants hardly ever plead insanity, and of
those practically none succeed).
—— “The Defense of Entrapment” Update history to include modern totalitarian
government, including Moammar Ghadafi and Kim Jong-un.
—— “Syndrome Defenses” Substantial new material, including empirical findings
on PTS effects on defense as it applies to the “hidden wounds” of returning
Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
preface xv
Chapter 10, Crimes Against Persons II: Sex Offenses, Bodily Injury,
and Personal Restraint
New
• Vignette “Did he commit a felony sex offense?”
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xvi preface
• Section
—— “Does ‘No’ Always Mean ‘No’?”
—— “The Kahan Berkowitz Experiment”
• Case Excerpt
—— State in the Interest of S.M.I. (2012) “Did he force her to have sexual inter-
course?”
—— State v. Triestman (2010) “Did he commit criminal sexual contact?”
• You Decide
—— “Is criminal law the best response to promote ethical domestic violence public
policy?”
—— “Should cyberbullying be a crime?”
• Table
—— “Perceived Offender Characteristics in Rape and Sexual Assault Victimizations
Against Females Ages 18–24 (by post-secondary enrollment status of victim),
1995–2013”
—— “Rape or Sexual Assault Victimizations Against Females Ages 18 to 24
(reported and not reported to police and reasons for not reporting, by post-
secondary enrollment status), 1995–2013”
• Revised
• Major Section Rewrite “Criminal Sexual Conduct Statutes” Added new material
on grass roots movement that swept the country and produced a revolution in rape
law, especially date rape
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
preface xvii
Revised
• Major Section Revision “Cybercrimes”
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xviii preface
Supplements
Resources for Instructors
• MindTap Criminal Justice MindTap from Cengage Learning represents a new
approach to a highly personalized, online learning platform. A fully online learn-
ing solution, MindTap combines all of a student’s learning tools—readings, mul-
timedia, activities, and assessments—into a singular Learning Path that guides
the student through the curriculum. Instructors personalize the experience by
customizing the presentation of these learning tools for their students, allowing
instructors to seamlessly introduce their own content into the Learning Path via
“apps” that integrate into the MindTap platform. Additionally, MindTap pro-
vides interoperability with major Learning Management Systems (LMS) via sup-
port for open industry standards and fosters partnerships with third-party edu-
cational application providers to provide a highly collaborative, engaging, and
personalized learning experience.
• Online Instructor’s Resource Manual The instructor’s manual, which has been
updated and revised by Valerie Bell of Loras College to the Twelfth Edition, in-
cludes learning objectives, key terms, a detailed chapter outline, a chapter sum-
mary, discussion topics, student activities, and media tools. The learning objectives
are correlated with the discussion topics, student activities, and media tools.
• Online Test Bank Each chapter’s test bank contains questions in multiple-choice,
true/false, completion, and essay formats, with a full answer key. The test bank is
coded to the learning objectives that appear in the main text and includes the page
numbers in the main text where the answers can be found. Finally, each question in
the test bank has been carefully reviewed by experienced criminal justice instruc-
tors for quality, accuracy, and content coverage so instructors can be sure they are
working with an assessment and grading resource of the highest caliber.
• Cengage Learning Testing Powered by Cognero This assessment software is a
flexible, online system that allows you to import, edit, and manipulate test bank
content from the Criminal Law test bank or elsewhere, including your own favor-
ite test questions; create multiple test versions in an instant; and deliver tests from
your LMS, your classroom, or wherever you want.
• PowerPoint® Lectures Helping you make your lectures more engaging while effec-
tively reaching your visually oriented students, these handy Microsoft PowerPoint®
slides outline the chapters of the main text in a classroom-ready presentation. The
PowerPoint® slides are updated to reflect the content and organization of the new
edition of the text and feature some additional examples and real-world cases for
application and discussion. The PowerPoint® slides were updated for the current
edition by Valerie Bell of Loras College.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
preface xix
Acknowledgements
Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition (like the other eleven), didn’t get to you by my efforts
alone; I had a lot of help. I’m grateful for all those who have provided feedback over
the years. Many thanks also to Senior Product Manager Carolyn Henderson Meier and
Associate Content Developer Julia White; they and others at Cengage Learning have
helped me at every stage of the book.
Additionally, I would like to thank the following reviewers of the Eleventh Edition
for providing invaluable feedback and direction for this revision:
• Seth A. Dupuis, Springfield Technical • Andrew Kozal, Northwest State
Community College Community College
• Keith E. Johnson, Mansfield • Emily Renzelli, West Virginia
University of Pennsylvania University
• Daniel Hebert, Springfield Technical
Community College
Derek Volke. For five years Derek has enriched my life. First as my student. Sec-
ond as my TA in all three courses that I’ve taught at the University of Minnesota—
Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. Third, he’s
been indispensable assistant in preparing Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition. The Learning
Objectives, Marginal Key Terms, and the Chapter Summaries are utterly and invaluably
his. I can’t count the number of times throughout the manuscript where he added com-
ments like “I think students might understand this better if you worded it this way….”
“I think this should be a key term; otherwise students might miss its significance.” “I’m
glad you changed this; I think it’ll be easier for students to understand now.” I accepted
all of Derek’s suggestions. The result—Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition, for the first time
was written with the active participation of a student who used it as a student, and
dealt with students’ problems understanding it, when he was a TA. This isn’t to say we
“dumbed down” and “spoon-fed” students. We just made a serious effort to write dif-
ficult matter in clear, straightforward prose.
What would I do without Doug and Steve? Doug takes me there and gets me here
and everywhere, day in and day out, days that now have stretched to 17 years. And
my old and dearest friend Steve, who from the days when he watched over our Irish
Wolfhounds in the 1970s, to now decades later when he keeps “Frankie” the Standard
Poodle, “Kitty” the OSH, me, and a lot more around here in order. And both Steve and
Doug do it all while putting up with what my beloved mentor at Cambridge, the late
Sir Geoffrey Elton, called my “mercurial temperament.” Only those who really know
me can understand how I can try the patience of Job! Friends and associates like these
have given Criminal Law, Twelfth Edition, whatever success it enjoys. As for its faults,
I own them all.
Joel Samaha
Minneapolis
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Learning Objectives
1 To know the dual nature
of the social reality of U.S.
criminal law and understand
5 To define and understand
what behavior deserves
criminal punishment and to
how it reflects both our understand the social conse-
criminal law and punishment quences of the era of mass
imaginations. imprisonment.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
1 Criminal Law and
Punishment in U.S. Society
An Overview
Chapter Outline
CRIMINAL LAW IN U.S. SOCIETY CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT
The Core Felonies IN U.S. SOCIETY
“All the rest” of U.S. Criminal Law: The Era of Mass Imprisonment,
The “Police Power” 1970s–Present
History of the Police Power Defining “Criminal Punishment”
Police Power and Public Morals Theories of Criminal Punishment
CRIMES AND NONCRIMINAL Retribution
Prevention
LEGAL WRONGS
Deterrence
CLASSIFYING CRIMES Incapacitation
Rehabilitation
SOURCES OF CRIMINAL LAW
Empirical Evaluation of Criminal Law
State Criminal Codes
Theories
The Model Penal Code (MPC)
Municipal Ordinances THE TEXT-CASE METHOD
The U.S. Criminal Code The Parts of the Case Excerpts
Administrative Agency Crimes Briefing the Case Excerpts
Informal Discretionary Law Making Finding Cases
CRIMINAL LAW IN THE U.S.
FEDERAL SYSTEM
LO1
“E very known organized society has, and probably must have, some system by
which it punishes those who violate its most important prohibitions” (Robinson
2008, 1). This book explores, and invites you to think critically about, the answers to the
two questions implied in Professor Robinson’s quote:
1. What behavior deserves criminal punishment?
2. What’s the appropriate punishment for criminal behavior?
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
4 CHAPTER 1 • CRIMINAL LAW AND PUNISHMENT IN U.S. SOCIETY
To introduce you to some possible answers, read the brief summaries presented from
real cases that we examine deeper in the remaining chapters. After you read each summary,
assign the case to one of the five following categories:
1. Crime
2. Noncriminal wrong (tort)
3. Regulation
4. License
5. Lawful
These categories move across a spectrum of interference with the liberty, privacy, and
property interests of individuals. These are precious rights in a free and democratic society.
But, so is our need to feel safe and secure, and the need to protect us from others (and
maybe even ourselves) who take or threaten to take them away from us. So, ask yourself,
“How much does the behavior in the story threaten your need to feel safe and secure?” And,
“Is it worth the loss your liberty, privacy, and property that all but option 5 will cost you?”
Don’t worry about whether you know enough about criminal law to decide which category
the story belongs in. In fact, try to ignore what you already know; just choose the category
you feel best fits the case:
1. Crime. If you put the case into this category, then grade it as very serious, serious,
or minor. The idea here is to stamp it with both the amount of disgrace (stigma) you
believe a convicted “criminal” should suffer and roughly the kind and amount of punish-
ment you believe the person deserves.
2. Noncriminal Wrong. This is a legal wrong that justifies suing someone and getting money,
usually for some personal injury. In other words, name a price that the wrongdoer has to
pay to another individual, but don’t stamp it “criminal” (Coffee 1992, 1876–77).
3. Regulation. Use government action—for example, a heavy cigarette tax to discourage
smoking—to discourage the behavior (Harcourt 2005, 11–12). In other words, make the
price high, but don’t stamp it with the stigma of “crime.”
4. License. Charge a price for it—for example, a driver’s license fee for the privilege to
drive—but don’t try to encourage or discourage it. Make the price affordable, and
attach no stigma to it.
5. Lawful. Let individual conscience and/or social disapproval condemn it, but create no
legal consequences. (You should also choose this option if you believe society should
encourage the behavior. A few students occasionally do.)
The Cases
Here are brief highlights from some of the cases you’ll encounter in the remaining
chapters.
1. A young man beat a stranger on the street with a baseball bat for “kicks.” The victim
died. (Commonwealth v. Golston 1977, “Atrocious Murder” in Chapter 9, p. 343)
2. A wife cheated on her husband for months. He begged his wife not to leave him. She
replied, “No, I’m going to court, and you’re going to have to give me all the furni-
ture. You’re going to have to get the hell out of here; you won’t have nothing.” Then,
pointing to her crotch, she added, “You’ll never touch this again, because I’ve got
something bigger and better for it.” Breaking into tears, he begged some more, “Why
don’t you try to save the marriage? I have nothing more to live for.” “Never,” she
replied. “I’m never coming back to you.” He “cracked,” ran into the next room, got a
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
CRIMINAL LAW IN U.S. SOCIETY 5
gun, and shot her to death. (Commonwealth v. Schnopps 1983, Chapter 9, “Voluntary
Manslaughter,” p. 360)
3. Two robbers met a drunk man in a bar, displaying a wad of money. When the man asked
them for a ride, they agreed, drove him out into the country, robbed him, forced him out
of the car without his glasses, and drove off. A college student, driving at a reasonable
speed, didn’t see the man standing in the middle of the road waving him down, couldn’t
stop, and struck and killed him. (People v. Kibbe 1974, Chapter 4, “Proximate Cause,” p. 147)
4. A police officer followed James Newman’s car and observed him making a left-hand
turn without signaling or stopping, running a red light, and driving down the middle
of a street, straddling the two traffic lanes. The officer activated his overhead lights
to initiate a traffic stop and, in response, Newman pulled into a parking lot. Dr. Joshua
Ramseyer, a certified neurologist and sleep medicine specialist, was prepared to tes-
tify that Newman was “sleep driving.” He emphasized that activities performed while
“sleep driving” are unconscious acts. He further noted that sleepwalking resulting in
“sleep driving,” while uncommon in the general population, is a well-established phe-
nomenon. (State v. Newman 2013, 302 P.3d 435, Chapter 3, p. 102)
5. A neighbor told an eight-year-old boy and his friend to come out from behind a building
and not to play there because it was dangerous. The boy answered belligerently, “In a
minute.” Losing patience, the neighbor said, “No, not in a minute; get out of there now!”
A few days later, he broke into her house, pulled a goldfish out of its bowl, chopped it
into little pieces with a steak knife, and smeared it all over the counter. Then he went
into the bathroom, plugged in a curling iron, and clamped it onto a towel. (State v. K.R.L.
1992, Chapter 6, “The Excuse of Age,” p. 224)
6. A young man lived in a ground-level apartment with a large window opening onto the
building parking lot. At eight o’clock one morning, he stood naked in front of the win-
dow eating his cereal in full view of those getting in and out of their cars. (State v.
Metzger 1982, Chapter 2, “Defining Vagueness,” p. 45)
7. A man knew he was HIV positive. Despite doctors’ instructions about safe sex and the
need to tell his partners before having sex with them, he had sex numerous times with
three different women without telling them. Most of the time, he used no protection,
but, on a few occasions, he withdrew before ejaculating. He gave one of the women an
anti-AIDS drug, “to slow down the AIDS.” None of the women contracted the HIV virus.
(State v. Stark 1992, Chapter 4, “MPC Mental Attitudes: Purpose,” p. 135)
8. A woman met a very drunk man in a bar. He got into her car, and she drove him to her
house. He asked her for a spoon, which she knew he wanted to use to take drugs. She
got it for him and waited in the living room while he went into the bathroom to “shoot
up.” He came back into the living room and collapsed; she went back to the bar. The
next morning she found him “purple, with flies flying around him.” Thinking he was
dead, she told her daughter to call the police and left for work. He was dead. (People v.
Oliver 1989, Chapter 3, “Omissions as Acts,” p. 116) ■
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
6 CHAPTER 1 • CRIMINAL LAW AND PUNISHMENT IN U.S. SOCIETY
social reality of U.S. Professor Luna is referring to the social reality of U.S. criminal law, namely that there are
criminal law the dual two criminal laws. This dual nature of criminal law is the organizing theme and organiza-
nature of U.S. criminal
tion of your book. There’s a small group of core offenses and a huge number of crimes we
law divided into two cat-
egories: a small number call “all the rest” (Professor Stuntz [2001] calls them “everything else” (512).)
of serious, core offenses Notice the number of arrests Table 1.1 keyed to the chapters in which they appear.
and a large number of Also, look at the revealing distribution of violent, property, and drug offense arrests
lesser crimes, or “every-
thing else”
depicted in Figure 1.1. They’re the latest numbers available when your book went to press.
Table 1.1 and Figure 1.1 tell you a lot about criminal law in U.S. society. They
criminal law imagina- reflect what we call the criminal law imagination in United States society. What do
tion the contributions of I mean by “criminal law imagination?” Conduct that reflects our “moral desires—
law, history, philosophy,
visions of a moral order, yearnings for the comportment of others and ourselves,” and
the social sciences, and
sometimes biology to which “we seek to impose . . . on the world” (Harcourt 2005, 10 emphasis added). (I
explain the moral desires borrowed and tailored the term sociological imagination coined by the American soci-
we wish to impose on the ologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 to describe the type of insight offered by the discipline
world of sociology, namely to explain the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life.)
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
CRIMINAL LAW IN U.S. SOCIETY 7
1,559,284
Property
1,501,043
Drugs
You’ve almost certainly heard of these ancient crimes. These are the “Index” felonies against prop-
crimes that the FBI tracks in its annual Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). Most people erty the core offenses of
believe they’re morally wrong and that those who commit them deserve criminal pun- felonious theft, robbery,
arson, and burglary
ishment. You probably agree. Analyzing the elements of these crimes and their punish-
ment fill up most law school criminal law casebooks, law school criminal law courses,
criminal law scholarship—and the book you’re reading (Stuntz 2001, 512). All states
and the federal government have criminal codes that both define in detail the elements
the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to convict defendants, and
prescribe hard punishment (a year or more in prison) for committing them. (We get to hard punishment a sen-
the punishment later.) tence of a year or more
in prison
Notice several other points about the social reality of the handful of core felonies
in U.S. criminal law:
1. There are far fewer core offenses and far fewer people committing them (see Table
1.1 and Figure 1.1) than in the rest of the criminal law.
2. Core offenses are ancient.
3. Most have remained remarkably stable in definition. Their elements are pretty
much what they were when the judges created them and Blackstone (1769) wrote
about them. (But see sex offenses and domestic violence in Chapter 10.)
4. The short list of them has not grown much since Blackstone’s day either. (Motor
Vehicle Theft is the only core offense in the FBI Index that was not one of the
ancient felonies.)
The core offenses clearly fit within what Professor Bernard Harcourt (2005) calls
our “carceral imagination.” The word carceral refers to jail and prison. We call it the
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
8 CHAPTER 1 • CRIMINAL LAW AND PUNISHMENT IN U.S. SOCIETY
punishment imagina- punishment imagination, crimes that fit within the criminal law imagination and that
tion crimes that fit within the law should punish by locking up people. Now, let’s turn to “all the rest” of the
the criminal law imagina-
tion and that the law
offenses that make up our criminal law.
should punish by locking
people up
LO1 “All the rest” of U.S. Criminal Law: The “Police Power”
Most “everything else” offenses derive from what’s known as the government’s police
police power all fed- power. Police power includes what you immediately imagined—uniformed police offi-
eral, state, and local cers enforcing the criminal law. However, it extends much further to encompass all
governments’ executive,
federal, state, and local governments’ executive, legislative, and judiciary’s acts to carry
legislative, and judiciary’s
power, including uni- out the “broad public policies regarding public safety, public economy, public property,
formed police officers, to public morals, and public health” (Novak 1996, 49). It also arguably comprises all of
carry out and enforce the the responsibilities of government listed in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution:
criminal law
•• Form a more perfect union
•• Establish justice
•• Insure domestic tranquility
•• Provide for the common defense
•• Promote the general welfare
•• Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity
During the spring of 1777, a few years after Blackstone’s Commentaries appeared
in print, the members of the Continental Congress (the body that coordinated the colo-
nial resistance against Great Britain) were gathering in Philadelphia. They realized their
cause was in grave danger. The war was going badly: New York had fallen to the British
army. The Hessians and British Redcoats were about to cut off New England. And, the
British army was planning to crush the rebellion utterly by taking Philadelphia.
The Revolutionary War generation fought for liberty. However, after the war, they
quickly came to fear that their revolution had “unleashed widespread licentiousness,
vice, and crime.” They reacted to this fear in two ways. On the positive side, they called
on private citizens to “invest liberty in virtue.” Voluntary organizations “spread the
gospel of Christian goodness and good citizenship.” Second, they set aside their liberal
ideas—individual autonomy, consent, and law—and
called on local and state governments to limit or deny liberty to those individuals who
appeared to endanger public peace. Legislatures, judges, and other officials responding
by exercising the state’s police power to detain, prosecute, and punish wrongdoers.
(Kann 2008, 74; emphasis added)
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
CRIMINAL LAW IN U.S. SOCIETY 9
In short, people fought and died to be free from King George III and his detested
exercise of police power during the American Revolution, only to replace it with their
own officials’ exercise of the same police power. Historian William Novak (1996) has
convincingly documented a “powerful government tradition devoted in theory and
practice to the vision of a well-regulated society” in the century after the Revolution.
He has also established that criminal law was a “key technology in morals and cultural
policing” to maintain that regulation (150).
With this background, I believe you’ve got a good idea of how broad and deep our
criminal law imagination is. Broad and deep as it is, our criminal law has its limits, as
you learn in:
1. Chapter 2, the constitutional limits imposed by the protections of free speech, the
right to possess and use guns; and due process rights to life, liberty, and property
2. Chapter 3, the principle of criminal liability voluntary act requirement
3. Chapter 4, the criminal intent requirement
4. Chapter 5, the justification defenses, such as self-defense and defense home
5. Chapter 6, the excuse defenses, such as insanity and age
6. Chapter 7, the limits imposed on criminal liability for others’ behavior (accom-
plice) and relationships (vicarious liability)
7. Chapter 8, limits on uncompleted crimes—attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy
8. Chapters 10–12, limits imposed by definitions of crimes against persons, property,
and public order and morals
9. Chapter 13, the limits to crimes of international and domestic terrorism, and to
immigration crimes
I hope these—and all the other chapters—will help you to understand the criminal
law and the social reality of the U.S. criminal law imagination. But, I hope our journey
through the criminal law will encourage you also to adopt Criminal Law’s critical
approach. If you do, you can formulate your own criminal law imagination, namely
how broad and deep it should be, as well as what it is.
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
"That speech is impromptu, I presume," she said addressing the boy. "I would
like you to repeat the one you gave us last week."
So, Dick, nothing loath, came out again, and this time acquitted himself with
honor.
Miss Wheeler was on her way home when she heard her name called, and
presently, Richard overtook her.
CHAPTER IV.
DICK IN TROUBLE.
MANY of the children in Annesley were in the habit of going to school barefoot
through the warm weather. Dick had often urged his mother to let him go
without shoes. This she had decidedly refused.
The second week in September was extremely warm. One day Richard was
going home from school with a companion, when the boy said:
"I wouldn't wear shoes this hot day, for any thing, it's so much cooler without
them."
He intended at the time to make one more plea with his mother; but when the
hour came she was busy with household duties; and there was a grave
expression on her face which did not look very hopeful. He went out the back
door to be by himself.
"I have a good mind to try it," he began. "Mother hasn't said any thing about it
this great while, so I shouldn't be disobeying. I'll hide my shoes here and put
them on before she knows it."
"If you are not disobeying, why do you hide them?" asked conscience.
Dick knew he was doing wrong; and he did not deceive himself by any more
arguing. "Mother don't know how hot my feet are with shoes and stockings,"
he said to himself, "or she wouldn't make me wear them."
After he had gone, the door bell rang; and Mrs. Stuart answered it. It was a
beggar who wanted food and old clothes. When she had supplied his wants to
the best of her ability, she saw him take something from beneath the front
steps, and hide it under his coat.
"Mother! mother!" cried little Lyman, rushing into the house. "Man has got
Dick's shoes."
Oh, Dick! Could you have seen your mother's face then, not angry; but, so
sad, so grieved that you had disobeyed her, you would have been sorry I am
sure!
Mrs. Stuart sat down with a sigh to a basket full of mending. She was not fond
of mending, and now the holes to be patched were many and large. She felt
discouraged but not at the work. She did not even think of that. She was
grieving for her boy, who had disobeyed her and displeased his heavenly
Father.
"I did hope he was a Christian child," she said half aloud. "I thought he had
begun to remember that he was not his own—that he was bought with a price,
—that he had pledged himself to obey Christ's commands. What if he had
deceived himself?"
Tears rolled down her cheeks and fell on her work. At last she reflected that he
was only a child, liable to fall into temptation. "I will wait and see whether he
confesses," she said. "If he does, I will freely forgive him, and I will pray God
to forgive him."
Her husband looked into the room and was surprised to see instead of her
usual bright smile, a clouded face.
She told him What had occurred and her own fears about her boy.
"Dick is trying to be like his Master," was his encouraging reply. "I am sure of
that; but like all the rest of us, he sometimes yields to the temptations of the
arch deceiver. I feel sure his conscience will not let him rest till he has
confessed, both to God and to his mother."
In a few minutes a wagon drove up to the door, and one of their neighbors, a
young farmer, sprang to the ground.
"Why there's Dick!" exclaimed Mrs. Stuart growing very pale. "I hope nothing
has happened."
Mr. Pond took the boy in his arms and brought him into the kitchen.
"I was going by the school house," he explained, "while the children were out
at recess. There was a scream and presently the teacher found that Dick had
stepped with his bare feet on some glass. She tried to stop the bleeding and
then asked me to bring him home.
"You'd better let me carry him up stairs. He's a pretty good armful."
All this time Dick had avoided his mother's eye; and did not speak a word.
Only when his father took off the handkerchief bound around his foot, and
pressed the place with his finger the tears ran down his pale cheeks.
"I'm afraid there is glass in his foot now," urged the gentleman. "If so we must
have the doctor here, with his forceps."
"I'll do it up," said Mrs. Stuart. "If he is no better in the morning, we will have
the Doctor examine it."
CHAPTER V.
DICK'S PUNISHMENT.
ALL this time not a word had been said about his disobedience. When he
cried, his mother stooped over the bed and kissed him. Presently she left the
room to get some bandages, and as soon as he was alone his tears burst
forth afresh.
"Oh how sorry I am I was so naughty!" he said to himself. "How good mother
is. I do love her dearly. I'm glad I meant to tell her before I got hurt."
"Will you please shut the door, mother," he said still sobbing. "I want to tell you
something."
She came and stood by his side, putting her hand on his damp forehead.
"I disobeyed you, mother," he began. "I went without my shoes. I didn't feel
happy because I knew how wicked it was to do it when you'd forbidden me.
Will you forgive me, mother?"
"Yes, my dear; with all my heart. But you know there is another whom you
have offended; One whose commands you have promised to obey."
"I know it, mother. I thought of it in school; and I couldn't study, so I lost my
place in my class. I thought of it, and prayed in my seat that God would forgive
me, and help me to be good. It was then, before I was hurt, that I resolved to
tell you. I hid my shoes under the front steps, and I meant to put them on
again before you saw me, my stockings are in my pocket."
"I knew it all before you came home, my dear. A beggar came here and when
he went away he carried off your new shoes; but I scarcely thought of that; so
pained was I that my son should disobey me and displease Cod."
"Oh mother! Mother! I never will do so again. I mean I'll try not to. You knew
best when you said it was dangerous to go barefoot. My foot does ache,
mother. Do you think it will have to be cut?"
The night following, neither Dick nor his mother slept one moment. As soon as
it was light Mr. Stuart started off on horseback for the Doctor, who lived a mile
away.
When the physician came, he loosened the bandage, and found the whole
ball of the foot inflamed. He said there were small pieces of glass in it, and
that getting them out would be a bad business.
"Dick is a brave boy," said his mother. "I'm sure he'll try to be quiet."
"If you will hold my hand, mother, I'll try not to move."
"You may scream as loud as you please," said the Doctor laughing, "if you'll
keep your foot still."
But Dick did not even groan. He shut his teeth firmly together growing paler
and paler every minute, until with a gasp, he lost his consciousness.
Mrs. Stuart felt his hand loosen its grasp on hers; and motioned her husband
to run for the camphor bottle.
"Never mind," said the Doctor, "I've almost done. Let him be a minute. These
little pieces must be got out or they'll make mischief."
Richard looked so much like death, that his mother could not let him be. She
chafed his hands, and kissed his pale cheeks, murmuring words of love; while
the faithful physician probed and pressed about the wound until he was quite
sure he had removed all the glass.
Then he laid a towel under the foot to catch the blood when it began to flow,
and threw a handful of water in the face of the fainting boy, which soon
brought back the color to his cheeks.
"All right now, my brave fellow;" he said. "The glass is all out. Now, Mrs.
Stuart, if you will give me four spoonsful of real cream, I'll make an ointment."
He poured some liquid from a bottle and gave the mixture a good stir, making
a thick, nice salve. This he spread over the soft linen the mother had provided,
and bound around the foot.
"You will have to give up farming for a week or two," said the Doctor laughing.
"Perfect rest and daily applications of the ointment are all that will be
necessary. Next time, Dick, I advise you to wear shoes."
It was a weary time for the poor fellow on many accounts. He worried secretly
about the work and about his lessons. He sent to school every day by Eddy to
find out who was at the head of the spelling and grammar classes; but he
confessed to himself that his punishment was a just one.
After a long conversation with his mother on the subject, he covered his thee
and thanked his kind Father in heaven for the chastisement which he could
now see was sent in love to remind him of the truth of the words, "The way of
transgressors is hard."
"You did just so, mother, when baby kept running to the stove, and you were
afraid he would be burned up if he did not learn; so you let him burn his
fingers a little mite. Oh, how he cried, and hid his face in your neck! But he
knew he mustn't touch the stove again. Don't you remember how he would go
toward it and then look at you and say so cunning, 'No! No! Berty burn!' And
then he'd blow as you did on his poor fingers."
"Perhaps, mamma, God knew that if I went to school barefoot and came back
without hurting me I should go on growing more and more disobedient, and so
he let me hurt myself to save me a worse hurt as you did Berty."
"Yes, Dick, that is the right view to take of it. That is what St. Paul meant when
he said: 'Now no chastening is for the present joyous, but grievous;
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to
them that are exercised thereby.'"
CHAPTER VI.
DICK'S ADVENTURE.
It was more of a job than he had imagined to wind the evergreen into wreaths.
Though he worked with all his might, he only finished three the first evening.
Mrs. Stuart's mending prevented her helping him at this time; but she sat near
and watched his progress. After he had retired, she took the basket of
selected pieces, and finished the handsomest one yet made, in fifteen
minutes.
"Let me help you plan your work," she said the next morning, after her wreath
had been greatly admired.
"Eddy and perhaps Lyman, too, can help you pick over your evergreen during
the day. Put the pieces ready to wind in a pile by themselves. This evening we
will have a bee, and make up as many wreaths as we can."
"I shall only make a hundred in all, mother," exclaimed the boy clapping his
hands with delight. "Mr. McIntosh has a hundred and fifty for his large church;
and Mr. Jones told me they couldn't afford to decorate a great deal. About
forty dollars, he said they would pay. Do you think I have enough to make a
hundred, mother?"
"It wont be so much work to wind the other for looping up, mother. It doesn't
have to be done thick like the wreaths. Mr. Jones said I might bring what I
could afford for forty dollars."
"So he thought you would forget the decorations before November, did he?"
"Yes, mother, and he shook hands with me as though he had always known
me. I thanked him ever so much for his kindness."
Christmas came this year on Thursday. On the Monday previous Dick plead
for leave to take his wreaths to the city, and engage the amount he wished to
buy. The snow had lain on the ground nearly a month, and there had been no
opportunity to gather more evergreen. A cold sleet had been driving against
the windows all the morning and his parents could not consent to his riding so
far in an open sleigh.
Poor Dick could think and talk of nothing but his decorations. He had obtained
permission of Miss Wheeler to be absent from school on necessary business,
on condition that he made up his lessons. This he had done for Monday; and
it was a terrible disappointment not to be able to go. The morning was half
past before he recollected that he might go to school to day and in the
evening learn the lessons his class would recite on Tuesday.
"I hate to have the child out all day in such weather," remarked Mrs. Stuart to
her husband.
"He wont mind it, his blood runs briskly," answered his father with a smile.
So Dick started off, his hands and ears well protected, after receiving many
cautions to be careful of his driving in the city, and to put the horse under
cover as soon as possible.
Old Charley having eaten an extra feed of oats, felt pretty lively. He knew as
well as any body that something unusual had taken him out of his warm
stable, and turned to watch the last arrangements of his young master with a
satisfied neigh.
"Good bye! Good bye! I hope you'll have great success," cried one and
another shouting after him, as with a merry laugh Dick drove out of the yard.
"I don't think he'll make any thing by his speculation," remarked his father. "But
it will be a good lesson for him."
About four o'clock Eddy and Lyman stationed themselves by the front window
to watch for their brother's return. Early in the afternoon, the weather had
grown cloudy again, and now the fine sleet had begun to fall.
"Bring Dick's Sunday jacket and shoes, and put them near the fire," said his
mother. "He will be wet through."
After waiting supper an hour beyond the usual time they reluctantly took their
seats at the table, wondering every moment why he did not come.
In the centre of the table there was a great dish of hasty pudding of which the
absent boy was particularly fond. Mrs. Stuart took out a portion into a bowl,
and set it into the top of the teakettle. By the time the dishes were cleared
away, she had become really anxious.
It was now seven, a cold disagreeable night, where could the child be? Two or
three times the mother went to the door, thinking she heard a cry of distress.
"We had better have prayers," urged Mr. Stuart. "Baby's eyes are growing
very heavy."
Eddy brought the Bible and singing books; but the reading had not
commenced when the sound of some one pushing open the barn door startled
them.
Mr. Stuart, however, took the lantern down from its appropriate shelf, lighted it
and prepared to assist his son.
"Are you very wet? We have been quite anxious about you. How? Why?
Where did you borrow this buffalo robe?"
Dick laughed merrily. "I'll tell you all about it, sir, when we go into the house."
"You'd better go in alone. I'll unharness, and put the horse up. The feed is all
ready in his crib."
"Old Charley has done splendidly. He's been well fed too. I saw to it myself,
and stood by till he had eaten his oats clean. Mr. Pond told me the tricks of the
stable men. Now I'll run in with some of my bundles."
Once, twice, he ran with a load to the back kitchen seeing no one. Then
perceiving that his father was ready, he said:
"Will you please carry the buffalo in? I must give it to the owner all safe." Then
he took the last bundle from the sleigh, and followed his father to the sitting-
room.
"'Tis Dick, mother! I hear his voice;" and out rushed the whole group to meet
and welcome him.
Dick walked in, his head erect, his eyes twinkling with fun, while about his
mouth was a peculiarly mysterious smile which his mother understood very
well.
He presented rather a strange appearance. On his head was a cap of fur with
ear pieces fastened under the chin. Over this his common cap was tied with a
scarf. His hands were protected by a pair of fur gloves with deep gauntlets.
He took these last off, and tossed them upon the table with an air of
unconcern; then untied his scarf, and did the same with his cap.
"You must have come into a fortune somehow," said his father smiling. "I was
never the owner of a pair of gloves like these. Are they yours, Dick?"
CHAPTER VII.
DICK'S STORY.
"I looked at him sharp for a minute, and when I saw that he was a true
gentleman, I said—
"'Yes sir, I'm pretty full; but if you wont mind your feet being crowded, I can
take you as well as not.'"
"He told me he had been waiting for an omnibus; and he wanted very much to
catch the train from the city to Providence."
"He asked me my name and a great many questions; and I liked him so well I
told him all about the chance I'd got to decorate St. Stevens' church."
"By and by he took out his pocketbook full of bills and currency, and offered
me fifty cents."
"'Thank you, sir. I don't want any pay. I can take you to the depot if you'll show
me the way.'"
ANYBODY WILL TELL YOU WHERE GOV. BLAKE LIVES.
"He urged me a good deal and tried to press the money into my hand, but I
kept saying:"
"'No, sir, I thank you just the same; I'd rather not take it.'"
"'Ah! Is he your cousin? I know him very well. I was at a dinner party at his
house last week. Perhaps you'll go to Providence some time. If you do, you
must call on me; my name is Blake. Any body will tell you where Governor
Blake lives.'"
"Yes, and I mean to call. He reminded me of it again, when he got out; and he
shook hands as hearty as could be, and wished me great success."
"When I went to the place where Mr. Jones told me to carry the evergreen,—
the vestry back of the church, I found ever so many people there, ladies and
boys. As soon as they saw me with some wreaths on my neck and on my
arms, they cried out:"
"'Oh! here is our young hero We are all ready for you. You're just in time.'"
"The boys helped me bring the wreaths from the sleigh. They said they were
beautiful,—the handsomest they'd ever had.
"'I have only ten yards of wound evergreen here.' I said. 'I want to know how
much you need; and I'll have it here in a few minutes.'"
"I saw some on my way, and found how much I could buy it for. So when they
told me, I drove Charley right back, and bought it with the money father lent
me. Just as I was going in, I heard one lady say:"
"'I knew he'd be sure to bring it in season. Father told me about his coming to
the store one of the hottest days in August.'"
"I carried in all they wanted; and they thanked me over and over for being in
season. If I'd gone yesterday, mother, the vestry would have been locked up."
"I put up Charley then, and gave the man his blanket to cover him; and I didn't
leave till I'd seen his rack full of hay."
"I staid in the stable-office a little while to warm myself; and I wanted to count
how much I had made. It was twenty dollars, besides twenty which I gave for
the evergreen I bought. There's your money, father, all in new bills; and here's
a buffalo robe for your Christmas present."
"I heard you say you wanted a new hod, and so I bought you one, and some
knives for the table. There's half a dozen, good steel too."
"My dear boy," said his mother. "I didn't expect any thing. You should have
bought for yourself."
"I bought the cap and gloves for myself," Dick went on, "and those fowls are
for all of us."
He pointed to the table where lay two turkeys weighing nine pounds each, and
a pair of chickens.
"Wonders will never cease," said his mother, laughing heartily. "You don't
mean that you bought all these things for twenty dollars."
"Please come in where it's warm; and I'll tell you all about it."
"I meant all the time to buy a turkey for Christmas dinner, and I went to the
market to see how much it would cost. There were crowds and crowds of
them; but they were very high. As I came out I saw a man getting into a pung.
He was grumbling awfully. I went up to him and found he'd got turkeys and
chickens; but they were not very fat and he couldn't sell them.
"'Just what I can get,' he answered real cross. 'I'm twenty miles from home
and the rain is coming on heavy.'"
"I picked out the best two turkeys and two chickens which I could find; and I
said—"
"So I cleared out and went to the other end of the market. In half an hour I
came back. 'Haven't you gone yet?' I asked laughing."
"'Come,' says he, 'I can't wait here. I'll sell dirt cheap.'"
"So I said again, 'I'll give you a dollar and a half for those I've picked out.'"
"'I aren't quite a fool yet,' he answered growling. 'I 'spose you think I haven't
cut my eye teeth.'"
"I went back into the market out of the rain; but I didn't look for a turkey. I knew
the man would let me have 'em if I waited long enough. When I went back
again I saw him standing in his pung waiting for me.
"'I've concluded not to give so much now,' I told him. 'I'll pay you a dollar for
'em.'"
He waited a minute. It was growing real dark and then he snatched 'em out of
the pung.
"'There take 'em,' says he. 'It's just giving 'em away.'"
"I took out the dollar and gave it to him and thanked him, and took the blanket
off his horse, and tucked it round his knees so that he might be warm.
"'I'm going twelve miles to Annesley. I've got a horse in the stable on Blossom
street.'"
"'Jump in, then,' says he; 'and I'll carry the stuff there. I go right past the
stable.'"
"We only rode a little way; but I got him to laughing, and he said he wished I'd
ride all the way home with him. He added 'if you are only twelve, you've got
your eye teeth cut, no mistake; I've allus heard that ministers had smart
chaps.' He shook hands real hearty when I left him.'"
"I forgot to tell you," said Dick, "that when I carried my bill to Mr. Jones, he
was just going to dinner, and he made me go with him. He lives a little way
from the State House and his parlors were fixed up big. Now I'll eat some
hasty pudding and go to bed."
CHAPTER VIII.
DICK TAMING THE HORSE.
"I AM disappointed," said Mr. Stuart coming into the house one warm day the
following spring. "Mr. Fuller has sold his oxen, and can't plough my land this
year."
"Let me plough the garden, father," exclaimed Dick. "I'm sure old Charley and
I can do it."
"You," repeated the minister smiling. "I think that would be an odd sight."
A few days later Mr. Stuart was returning from a call on a sick parishioner,
when he saw a number of men standing near the wall which separated his
garden from the main road. Wondering what had called the people together,
he hurried toward them.
Standing in the midst of the ploughed ground was Dick talking to old Charley,
who it seemed had been inclined to be refractory, and who had been dealt
with after the Rarey fashion.
This method of taming refractory horses was much talked of at the time, and
though Dick had never seen it actually put in force, he had seen and studied
the illustrations in a popular pictorial.
Accordingly when Charley was fastened to the plough; and when after being
politely requested to move along, he did not budge an inch, but only looked
around at his young master with disdain, Richard thought it a good opportunity
to show him that he must submit.
When Mr. Stuart came in sight, he had been thrown to his knees twice by the
wonder working strap, and now seemed quite subdued.
After patting his head and speaking a few encouraging words, Dick once more
fastened the chains to his harness, and the old fellow walked off as steadily as
one could desire; the spectators meanwhile shouting and clapping their
hands.
"A smart chap, your son is, Parson," remarked one stout farmer laughing.
"'Twas as good as a show to see him manage the dumb creature."
"I'm afraid Dick will get hurt some of these days," said his father, "he is so
fearless."
Having proved conclusively that he could plough the garden, Dick plead with
his father to allow him to hire another horse and plough the field for corn and
potatoes.
"The very idea is absurd, Richard, very few men can drive a pair of horses,
and plough at the same time."
"You thought I couldn't plough with one horse," urged the boy glancing archly
in his father's face. "I wish you'd let me try. I saw how Mr. Kingsbury managed.
He put the reins round his neck. Charley goes as steady as an old sheep; and
if I can hire Mr. Fuller's one day I aren't afraid to try."
"I wish father'd sell Old Charley and get a better horse," Dick went on, when
the gentleman had left the room. "He's such an awkward looking creature. He
never goes out of the gate head first unless he goes backward."
"That is because he likes to see what is going on behind him," suggested his
mother laughing.
"Charley is a good creature," added Mr. Stuart returning. "He has served well
in his day and generation. I couldn't get another that would stand as he does.
Why he'd stand at the gate of one of my parishioners all day if I wished it."
"But we want a horse to go, father, and not to stand. Charley stops short when
we come to a hill. I'm curing him of it, though."
Dick went the same evening to engage Mr. Fuller's horse, and the next
morning his mother heard him going softly down the stairs a few minutes after
four.
At half past five a gentleman, just arrived from New York by the express train,
was hurrying to his home a short distance beyond the minister's house, when
he saw a novel sight.
He waited until the horses had reached the wall close to the road, watching
with a pleased curiosity the ingenuity of the child who was working them.
"How do you do, Richard?" he asked. "It seems to me you have a new method
of ploughing. You do not work on the ten hour system, I see."
Dick tossed back his curls. He wanted to wipe the perspiration from his face,
but his hands were too dirty. "I like farming," he said with a merry laugh; "but I
never knew before why farmers wiped their faces on their shirt sleeves,"
suiting the action to the words. "Father thought it was absurd for me to try," he
went on; "I want to show him I can plough with a span and without a driver
too."
Richard pulled the rein as it hung about his neck and the horses started on the
next furrow. Though he had no idea at the time that the gentleman watching
him had any thing more than mere curiosity, yet subsequent events proved
that this morning's work had a great effect on his future life.
CHAPTER IX.
THE next winter the teacher of the advanced school did not prove satisfactory.
Mrs. Stuart urged that Dick ought to be sent to an Academy, where he could
attend to the higher branches. Her husband agreed with her; but where was
the money to come from to pay his expenses?
"It does seem best," the minister said one evening when they had together
asked God to lead them in the path of duty; "and if it is best the means will be
provided."
"I can wear my cloak another winter," said the mother, cheerfully. "That will
save ten dollars towards it."
Mr. Stuart rose and walked the room, his hands joined behind him as was his
habit when meditating. At last he said:
"By a little extra effort, I can finish a series of articles for our religious paper.
One of the Editors pressed me for them when I was in the city."
"Dick is such a good boy and has done so much for us I want to give him an
education. That is all I expect to give my children."
The Deacon was very strict in his religious opinions. At home Richard had
always been in the habit of joining with the family in singing a hymn at
morning and evening devotions, and on Sabbath evening each one selected
his or her favorite hymn and tune, which were sung in turn. Richard had a very
fine treble voice, which had been carefully trained. He greatly missed the
singing at prayers, and suggested to his roommate that they should sing on
Sunday night in their chamber.
When they were interrupted by a loud voice at the foot of the stairs.
"We're singing the praises of God," answered Richard opening the door.
"Well, you must stop. I can't have any such noise in my house. It's Sunday;
and I'm not used to it."
Soon alter the corn was gathered into immense heaps and carried into the
barn floor.
"Would you like the job of husking, Richard?" the deacon asked.
"I'll do it, sir. I'll begin now. I have ten minutes before school."
"Score the number of bushels on the barn door," added the deacon.
Catching up the small basket, Dick ran to the barn, and filled it half full of ears.
When he came home he went to finish the bushel before dinner. It was only by
improving his odd minutes that he could do the work without neglecting his
lessons. He smiled when he saw that the small basket had been taken away
and a large one substituted.
"Have you done with that bushel basket, sir? I want it to carry away my corn."
"Why don't you use the one I put there?" inquired the Deacon, his face
growing red. "It's exactly the size of the other."
"Yes, sir, but 'tisn't half so handy to carry; besides it doesn't fill up near so
quick. You say, sir, they're exactly alike in measure; so I suppose you'd just as
lief I'd use one as the other."
Richard looked straight into the Deacon's eye; but there was a comical smile
playing around his mouth which told the other that his trick had been
discovered. He hemmed a little, before he answered:
"Certainly! certainly!" and then turned the subject at once. So Richard husked
two hundred bushels: of corn, and made, as nearly as he could calculate,
about two dollars by a change of baskets.
While in New Hampshire Dick sung regularly with the choir, as he had done at
home. He also took a class in Sunday school, though he would have preferred
being a pupil. But as there was a want of competent teachers he reluctantly
consented, if his mates would join him to act as teacher, though it soon
became by his management a class for mutual instruction. The preparation for
this exercise, aided as it was by books from the Pastor's library, freely offered
for the benefit of the young men, was perhaps his favorite employment of the
week. First he read the passage with some commentary; then he looked out in
the Bible atlas, any place mentioned and found whatever he could in relation
to it; and last of all, he examined Robinson's researches in the holy land in
search of any thing in connection with the subject.
From the very first evening of his arrival, he had maintained the habit of secret
devotion in his room; a habit which his chum though not a professor of religion
always respected. Soon after his connection with the school, he invited the
boys to form a meeting for social worship.