Criminal law and procedures
1. With reference to criminal law, citing legal authority to support your answer, discuss the criminal liability the various parties in this scenario.
2. With reference to relevant sentencing guidelines and, assuming that none of the parties have any prior criminal convictions, explain exactly what the likely sentences will be for those liable parties, assuming that they are convicted after a criminal trial (after pleading not guilty).
Jonjo Hamlet is the recipient of bad news when he learns of the sudden death of his father. Hamlet’s father was the owner of a very successful King of Denmark bedding centre based in Sunderland. In his will, Hamlet’s father leaves the business to his brother Claudius and his wife Gertrude. Jonjo becomes even more depressed a month later when he learns of Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage during last minute holiday in Las Vegas. Jonjo is very angry with Gertrude for marrying so soon after his father’s death.A week later, Jonjo begins seeing visions of his father.
The visions occur regularly, late at night. During one of the visions, Jonjo holds conversation with his father’s apparition and as a result, he suspects that his father was poisoned by Claudius. Unable to prove this, Jonjo plans to confront Claudius in the hope that he confesses to his crime. Meanwhile, Jonjo’s girlfriend, Ophelia is becoming increasingly concerned by his mood swings and erratic behaviour. When she attempts to find out what is wrong with Jonjo, he refuses to speak with her. Ophelia confides in her father, Polonius, who tells her that he will “get to the bottom of this”.
A month later, Claudius is holding a party to celebrate a big business contract with a hotel chain, where they beat out competition from rival company, Nor-Way Bedroom Furnishings. Near the end of the party and after consuming a fair amount of alcohol, Jonjo confronts his step-father Claudius and accuses him of killing his father. Claudius is enraged and storms off. Claudius has a reputation of being ruthless and spiteful and as such, Jojo is now worried that Claudius will be out for retribution.Meanwhile, Polonius is snooping around in Jonjo’s room to try and discover the reason for his strange moods.
On hearing footsteps, he hides behind the shower curtain in the bathroom. The footsteps are those of Jonjo and his mother. The two enter the room and a row ensues with Jonjo expressing his unhappiness of his mother’s marriage to Claudius. During the argument, Jonjo hears a noise coming from the bathroom and sees the silhouette of Polonius behind the curtain. Thinking that it is Claudius coming to kill him, Jonjo picks up a knife and stabs Polonius through the curtain. After realising his mistake, Jonjo panics thinking that he has killed Polonius. With the help of Gertrude, Jonjo throws the body into the River Wear. A month later, Ophelia is growing increasingly concerned with the disappearance of her father.
As she descends into a depression, she decides she can go on no longer and plans to jump into a lake at the local park. The park is usually patrolled by Horatio, the warden, but he has deserted his post early that day in order to visit the local greyhound track. As Ophelia is about to jump in the lake, she changes her mind. As she turns to leave, she loses her footing and falls in. Ophelia panics and begins shouting for help. During Ophelia’s predicament, her brother Laertes, sees her fall in from afar, but thinking it is an attention seeking stunt, walks away without helping. Jonjo, passes the scene but does not wish to get involved with the police as he is worried that an investigation would implicate him in regard to Polonius’
disappearance. Jonjo decides to walk on. Ophelia is discovered dead the next morning due to drowning in the lake.
A couple of days later, at Ophelia’s wake, Laertes accuses Jonjo of being the cause of Ophelia’s death. Laertes punches Jonjo in the face, causing him to receive a black eye. Jonjo retaliates by pushing Laertes over and the resultant fall causes him to break his wrist. Cornelius, angry with Jonjo’s accusations, pours a glass of wine for him and adds a dose of arsenic. Cornelius calls for a toast, but the poisoned wine is picked up by Gertrude, who drinks the entire glass and is rushed to hospital, seriously ill as a result of the poisoning. Polonius’ body is discovered some six months later. During an autopsy it is determined that the cause of death was due to drowning rather than the initial knife wound.
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