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Criminal
Law
After each class, I will move the completed assignment to an Assignments Archives. The archive will reflect what we have actually covered in class. I will post each week's assignments, usually on Thursday evening following the Thursday class. For those who want to prepare in advance, you can as a "rough guide" the proposed schedule of case readings (from the Dressler casebook) for the course on the course website. [Note: The proposed schedule of readings does not present complete assignments.] I cannot promise that we will follow the proposed schedule exactly. It is impossible to predict how each class discussion will proceed. I will make appropriate changes in the schedule of readings as necessary. And, I reserve the right to make still further adjustments and changes, including the deletion of and addition of specific cases, and to restructure proposed assignments as I deem appropriate and prudent. You are advised to check the assignments page on Tuesday morning before the Tuesday afternoon class, and Thursday morning prior to the Thursday afternoon class, to see if there are late changes or additions to the posted assignment. If there are changes in the assignment, I will designate them as follows: Obviously, I will try to keep the late changes to a minimum. I do sometimes find interesting or valuable materials as I prepare for class and I want to add links to these materials the evening before or even early morning of that day's class.
The essay final examinations given from 2002 to 2006 are available online: [Criminal Law Final Examination-2002] [Criminal Law Final Examination-2003] [Criminal Law Examination-2004] [Criminal Law Examination-2005] [Criminal Law Final Examination-2006] [Criminal Law Final Examination-2007] I do not mean to suggest or imply in the posting of these old examinations that examination questions in 2009 will be patterned on these exams. However, you may well find them the exams of value, not only as you prepare for the final exam but for guidance as to the relationship between what we do in class and what you are being asked to learn for a final examination.
If you are not, for an excusable reason, prepared to discuss the assigned materials and want to avoid the embarrassment of being called on, please let me know before class.
I will generally be available prior on Tuesday and Thursdays prior to our class meetings. My office is located in room #110. If you find that I am not in my office when you want to meet with me, please contact me by email and we'll find a mutually agreeable time to meet. You are welcome to contact me by email at any time. Barring unforeseen circumstances, your email will receive a prompt response. If you have concerns about the course, course website, course assignments, my teaching of the course, how to learn criminal law, how to take a final examination, or law school life in general, you are welcome to talk with me.
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Course
Textbook: Joshua Dressler, Cases and Materials on Criminal Law
(4th ed., 2007). You will also be assigned West Virginia cases
and jury instructions from various jurisdictions. The cases and jury
instructions that are not provided in the Dressler case book. These
materials will be available on the course website. [The citations to
the non-casebook and West Virginia cases are provided so you can use
the free-printing services of WestLaw and Lexis-Nexis.]
Recommended
Study Guide: Joshua Dressler, Understanding Criminal Law
(5th ed., 2009) [If you happen to have or find an earlier
edition of Dressler's Understanding Criminal Law, I see no
reason why it will not serve as a reliable study guide.] [Other criminal
law study guides are available. I do not use them, and know nothing
about them, and thus, cannot vouch for them.]
