Babies, Weapons and Lawsuits -- Part Two
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A school in Omaha, Nebraska, has suspended a first grader for inadvertently bringing a butter knife to class:
The bedrock principle of all criminal law is that without both a voluntary act (actus reus) and criminal intent (mens rea), there can simply be no punishable offense. Only the most trivial civil infractions, such as parking tickets, are exempt from the mens rea requirement (with one exception -- statutory rape).
Put aside the question of whether young Master Gray committed an actus reus -- he claims he didn't put the knife in the bag, but let's assume he did. There is still no criminal intent -- no mens rea -- because there can never be mens rea in a child so young.
Juvenile Delinquent?
Every state is different, but generally speaking the age of intent is around seven; I believe that is also the age suggested by the Model Penal Code. Below that age, a child is irrebuttably presumed to be incapable of forming criminal intent. And without criminal intent, there can be no offense. And without an offense, there must be no punishment.
A zero-tolerance weapons policy does not exempt schools from the strictures of either due process or common sense. A six-year old child cannot form criminal intent and must therefore not be punished for any offense or policy violation. The parents should prevail in their challenge of the suspension.
(Via Fark.)
Gray, who is 6, said he brought his book bag to school on Monday, but when he set it down, one of his family's butter knives fell out onto the cafeteria floor. A teacher walked up to question him.This is, of course, utter nonsense.
Gray told the teacher he wasn't sure how the knife got there. His family thinks his 4-year-old brother, Ben, put it there.
The school now plans to give the boy a one-day in-school suspension as part of its "no tolerance" weapons policy.
"We're going to file suit to prevent that suspension," said the family's attorney, James Martin Davis.
...
Law enforcement was contacted in the case. OPS said the boy could have been expelled.
The bedrock principle of all criminal law is that without both a voluntary act (actus reus) and criminal intent (mens rea), there can simply be no punishable offense. Only the most trivial civil infractions, such as parking tickets, are exempt from the mens rea requirement (with one exception -- statutory rape).
Put aside the question of whether young Master Gray committed an actus reus -- he claims he didn't put the knife in the bag, but let's assume he did. There is still no criminal intent -- no mens rea -- because there can never be mens rea in a child so young.
Juvenile Delinquent?
Every state is different, but generally speaking the age of intent is around seven; I believe that is also the age suggested by the Model Penal Code. Below that age, a child is irrebuttably presumed to be incapable of forming criminal intent. And without criminal intent, there can be no offense. And without an offense, there must be no punishment.
A zero-tolerance weapons policy does not exempt schools from the strictures of either due process or common sense. A six-year old child cannot form criminal intent and must therefore not be punished for any offense or policy violation. The parents should prevail in their challenge of the suspension.
(Via Fark.)
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- "Pour Some Felony On Me..."
- Illegal to Sell a Subway Token?...
- On the New Orleans Police Suspension
- Babies, Weapons and Lawsuits -- Part Two
- Student Suspended for Talking to Mother in Iraq...
- "Lost Enforcement": Sheriff Abuses Records to Track Down, Threaten Letter Writer
- Linkfest -- Special “I Fought the Law and the Law Won” Edition
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Posted by KipEsquire on
28 September 2005
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