#Law of undisturbed middle how to#
#Law of undisturbed middle trial#

Defendant stated, “I shook her hard,” and also provided a demonstration of his actions that day. Defendant then stated that, on the day in question, he had grown frustrated with the baby's crying and shook her, and while he was shaking her, her head accidentally hit the crib. The police detective questioned defendant's story, stated that the doctors said the baby's injury occurred that day, and encouraged defendant to confess. In a later videotaped interview with an investigating officer, defendant stated that the baby's death may have been due to an incident that had occurred two and one-half weeks earlier, in which he had tripped while feeding the baby and caused her to incur a minor head wound. In his statement, defendant reiterated what he had said to the emergency operator. Both defendant and his girlfriend gave statements to the officers.

Defendant told the officers that he had placed the sheet in the washing machine because it was stained with the baby's blood. Police officers arrived and noticed that the baby's crib sheet was missing. Paramedics arrived and took the child to the hospital, where she died later that day. Defendant reported to the emergency operator that the child had begun choking after he fed her and that the child was pale and cold. On October 17, 1998, defendant was babysitting his girlfriend's four-month-old baby daughter born of a previous relationship.

#Law of undisturbed middle trial#

Aber, Deputy State Public Defender, James Grimaldi, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, CO, for Defendant-Appellant.ĭefendant, Stephen Martinez, appeals the trial court's judgment of conviction entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of first degree, knowing murder of a child by a person in a position of trust, under § 18-6-401(7)(c), C.R.S.2001. Kaplan, Colorado State Public Defender, Ann M. Ken Salazar, Attorney General, Lauren Edelstein Park, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellee. Whether you are a lawyer, a judge, a scholar, or a student, The Force of Logic will inspire you to love legal argument, and appreciate its beauty and complexity in a brand new way.The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. It is a hands-on primer that presents a practical approach for understanding and mastering the place of formal logic in the art of legal reasoning. In this book, Rice builds on the theoretical foundation of formal logic by demonstrating logical fallacies through the use of anecdotes, examples, graphical illustrations, and exercises for you to try that are derived from common case documents.

#Law of undisturbed middle how to#

When you know how to recognize logical fallacies, you will not only strengthen your own arguments, but you will also be able to punch holes in your opponent's-and that can make the difference between winning and losing. Rice contends that formal logic provides tools that help lawyers distinguish good arguments from bad ones and, moreover, that they are simple to learn and use. Rice guides you to develop your powers of legal reasoning in a new way, through effective tips and tactics that will forever change the way you argue your cases. Have you ever read a legal opinion and come across an odd term like the fallacy of denying the antecedent, the fallacy of the undistributed middle, or the fallacy of the illicit process and wondered how you missed that in law school? You're not alone: every day, lawyers make arguments that fatally trespass the rules of formal logic-without realizing it-because traditional Have you ever read a legal opinion and come across an odd term like the fallacy of denying the antecedent, the fallacy of the undistributed middle, or the fallacy of the illicit process and wondered how you missed that in law school? You're not alone: every day, lawyers make arguments that fatally trespass the rules of formal logic-without realizing it-because traditional legal education often overlooks imparting the practical wisdom of ancient philosophy as it teaches students how to 'think like a lawyer.' In his book, The Force of Logic: Using Formal Logic as a Tool in the Craft of Legal Argument, lawyer and law professor Stephen M.