Description
No directly quoted material may be used in this project paper.
Resources should be summarized or paraphrased with appropriate in-text and Resource page citations.
Final Project
In the final assignment for this class, you will research a court case in which the defendant is charged with cyberbullying or cyberstalking. The court case must have been tried within the United States. Also, there must have been an actual trial; plea bargains or other truncated cases are not appropriate for this assignment. You must provide your professor with the actual case (re: pdf) before you begin work on your paper. Failure to submit the actual case will result in a lower grade.
This assignment will introduce you to the concept of case briefing and will also have you explain additional items of concern that will help you build an understanding of the case and the criminal prosecution. In completing the assessment, use information from the text, supplemental readings, videos, classroom conferences/discussions, and external sources, including electronic and print sources.
Use either American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines or Bluebook citation format.
Please be cognizant that, when using sources not normally considered scholarly, e.g., videos, television programs, and newspaper and magazine articles you will be held responsible for determining their scholarly value. If you are in doubt, contact me.
You are required to submit different exercises during the semester, which include identifying the case to be analyzed, drafting the brief, and providing other information as needed via the conferences or Assignments folder. You must gain clearance from me to move forward. The primary purpose of these assignments is to encourage you to collect and analyze information throughout the semester and to prepare preliminary drafts, do not wait until the end of the semester.
The required sections of the paper are as follows:
I. Elements of the crime. Identify and discuss the elements of the crime, as the prosecution proved them.
II. Defenses claimed by the defense. Identify and discuss any defenses claimed by the defendant.
III. Constitutional protection issues. Identify and discuss any constitutional protection issues (e.g., Miranda warnings, search and seizure).
IV. Case brief. Use the required formula:
1. Title and citation
2. Facts of the case
3. Issues
4. Holding (the final decision)
5. Reasoning (how the court arrived at this holding)
6. Analysis (how the facts of the case meet the legal criteria for prosecution)
V. Your judgment. If you were the judge or a juror in this case, would you have agreed with the outcome? If yes, explain why; if no, explain why.
Format Requirements
Paper should be between six and ten pages (1,500 to 2,500 words)
Double space, 12 pt. font, 1" margins, Use APA citations for all sources, Include APA reference page (not included in word count)?
Additionally:
Create a cover page for your assignment (not included in word count)
Include your name
Course title and number
Project title
Date of submissio
Explanation & Answer
Here you go! Let me know if you need any edits or have any questions
Running head: UNITED STATES V. LORI DREW
United States of America v. Lori Drew
Name
Institution Affiliation:
Date:
1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. LORI DREW
2
Elements of the crime.
Cyberbullying refers to the use of electronic means such as social networking sites, text
messages, internet or email to bully others. It differs from traditional bullying mainly because it
takes place over the internet. Cyberbullying, even more than traditional bullying, results in leads
to serious mental effects especially in children as well as adults. It may manifest a wide range of
emotional harm such as social withdrawal, depression, anxiety, and even low self-esteem. These
emotional effects may last for a long time in the person who becomes the victim (Castle, 2009.
p.582). A famous example of cyberbullying is a case that involved a thirteen-year-old girl named
Megan who lived in Missouri. A fraudulent profile had been created on the internet through
MySpace by her neighbors and the profile was used to perpetrate a vicious hoax on her. The fake
profile of an attractive sixteen-year-old boy was used to develop a close relationship with Megan.
After some time, the communications between Megan and the boy in the fictitious profile turned
so mean that Megan committed suicide. Later, it emerged that an adult neighbor to Megan named
Lori Drew had been involved in the plot to create the fictitious account and the cyberbullying
thereafter which led to the death of Megan after she committed suicide (Castle, 2009. p.581). This
led to the case, United States v. Drew whereby the jury returned a guilty verdict on Lori Drew.
The prosecution charged the defendant of three counts of felony for having accessed
computers that were without the necessary information to access information and this was based
on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The prosecution based their argument on three
facts from the CFAA. The act prohibited access to information from a protected computer through
unauthorized but intentional access. They argued that MySpace website had their own Terms of
Use which was a binding contract that was binding between it and all its users. All the users were
required to provide registration information that was accurate and truthful. Additionally, the terms
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. LORI DREW
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of service prohibited the users from using any information that they obtained from the website to
harm, abuse or harass other people. Therefore, Drew violated the contract between him and
MySpace and when she sent messages to Megan through the services offered by the website, he
had either acted in excess of the authorized access or acted without authorization to the protected
servers (Johnson, 2009. P. 563). Unauthorized access becomes a felony when committed with the
main aim to intentionally inflict emotional distress. Drew was accused of having intentions to
inflict emotional pain on the girl when he created the fraudulent account and used it to emotionally
torture her through the messages.
The defendant was charged with the count of conspiracy and three other counts of
committing a felony in violation of the statute. Among other things, the charges included that Drew
was involved in a conspiracy whereby the members intentionally entered computers that were
being used for interstate commerce to get information without authorization. The information was
meant to commit a tortious act meant to inflict intentional distress emotionally on the girl nam...
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