Introduction
Good afternoon ‘Your Honor’, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ of the jury. My name is (please enter your name), and I will be representing the prosecution in today’s case against Thomas Morton.
Your honor, this is a story about a boy who deliberately decided to walk the road of delinquency. A boy, who BY HIS OWN WILL AND PLANNING decided to join his older brother and his friend in the STEALING of a computer from Mountain Top high school. It is that act of stealing that made him appear before us today (Cunningham, 4).
Summary of events
On the day of August 14th, JD Morton, Thomas’s older brother, was told by his friend, John Medina, that their school, Mountain Top HS, was receiving a new computer. Mr. Medina knew this information because he was enrolled in a computer science class, a class that will have the opportunity to use the new computer (Taylor, 4).
Following this conversation, and recalling his inability to go on a trip to the Capitol due to financial reasons, Thomas privately told his brother, J. D., that he has a plan to find the money to pay for the trip. This plan would involve stealing the new computer to pay for the trip. After, J. D. told medina about this plan.
This plan came into effect on the next day, September 15th, when the computer science teacher at Mountain Top HS, Dana Capro, left his room to accompany a seizing student to the hospital. One of the students in the class had an epileptic seizure. Since there is no medical help in school, he accompanied the student to the nearest hospital, as every responsible teacher would have done. This was the occasion these boys were waiting for (Knott, 2).
After the school day was over, JD, John, and Thomas met up, just as they usually did. They jointly decided to meet up at 7:45 pm in front of the school, as planned. When they saw that nobody was in the computer room, they went in, took the computer, and just as they thought that they were successful in their plan, they were caught in the scene by Dana Capro.
The teacher took the boys into the principal’s office and called the police. Thomas got scared and began to cry. He realized he had committed a crime he should have never committed.
Introduction of opposing counsel witnesses
Your honor, the defense will present several witnesses. They will try to convince you that Thomas was not aware that he was going to steal that computer. They will also pretend that they abused will his goodwill and deceived him in order to make him participate in the theft. As we will demonstrate to you, this attempt is ungrounded (Lefkowitz, 4).
Their main witness is JD, Thomas’s brother. He will tell you that he made up the excuse of ‘borrowing for the computer’ and deceived his brother to join them on this mission. This is interesting thou because in his statement he admits that they had previously discussed in Thomas’ presence that borrowing goods from the school was NOT possible for students. You will also hear that Thomas decided by his FREE WILL to stay and ‘help’ them get the computer. That is clear intentionality and cannot be justified by unawareness. He will admit that on the night of September 15th, the three of them entered the school with a clear intention to steal the computer (Chan, 2).
The other witness is Thomas Morton himself. As quoted from a friend of his, Thomas is a boy who likes to ‘show off’. He will admit that he was very upset that his parents had no possibilities to fund his trip to the capital. In his affidavit, he clearly states that he ‘would do ANYTHING to participate in that trip to Washington DC’. The defense will point out that he also added ‘apart from stealing’. But that does logically contradict the first part of the statement. When you are ready to do ANYTHING that includes all possible options, no exclusion. So, either he is lying to the court or he is not clear in his mind. In either way, this means his statements cannot be taken into consideration (Joyce, 5).
Thomas will also tell you that he AGREED FREELY to join J. D. and Medina at the Mountain Top at night. He will also admit he was in the current of the fact that they were willing to steal the computer since the teacher was not there to guard. You would agree with me that this is the way delinquents think and act.
Introduction to prosecution witnesses
We as the prosecution will also have our witnesses. You will hear testimony from Dana Capro, the devoted computer science teacher at Mountain Top HS. Mr. Capro will tell you how important that computer was for the students and their learning. He will also tell you about the sacrifices the school, and he personally, made to buy one. Another thing you will hear is that he never allowed any of his students, NO ONE, to borrow the computer. Nor has he, or the school, ever done that before. That is clear evidence that the boys had no excuse for pretending they were borrowing the computer. This is another argument against J. D. testimony that pretends he manipulated his brother to believe that they were going to borrow the computer.
Capro will also tell you that while at the principal’s office, he heard JD yelling at Thomas, and commanding him to stop crying because he knew of the plan all along. This is clear evidence of the intention of these young men and the clear complicity of Thomas (Melton, 22).
You will also hear testimony from John Medina. Medina, a friend of JD’s knew all about this plan from the begging. He was part of the plan, true, but unlike others, he admitted his fault and repented. It is true, that he, in goodwill, told JD about the new computer, and inform him about Dana Capro’s emergency leave.
He will also tell you about the fact that Thomas had this sense of trying to ‘show off’ to others as one who can do things other than normal. In his affidavit, he states about Thomas’ ‘idea’ of stealing the new computer because he needed cash to finance his trip to Washington. That is another argument in favor of the thesis that Thomas INTENTIONALLY participated in the theft with the clear INTENTION to permanently deprive Mountain Top HS of the new computer.
Your honor, I ask that you hear the case that will be presented before you and that you rightfully evaluate all the evidence (Rahe, 4). Thomas was completely aware that he was stealing the computer. He showed CLEAR INTENTION to PERMANENTLY deprive Mountain Top of its new device. Thomas did know that his brother did not have the authorization to take the computer. He was trying to show his older brother and his friend that he can do something ‘big’ and is not a child anymore. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong way, that of delinquency. Thomas has to be pledged guilty (Miller, 4).
Thank you, your honor and jury.
Works cited
Cunningham, Edward. Jefferson vs. Hamilton: Confrontations that Shaped a Nation. New York, Penguin Press, 2000.
Chan, Michael. “Alexander Hamilton on Slavery”, Review of Politics 66, 2004.
Joyce, Arti. & Terence, Boil. (eds.) Thomas Jefferson, Political Writings. Cambridge, MA.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Knott, Stephen F. Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
Lefkowitz, Andre. George Washington’s Indispensable Men: The 32 Aides-de-Camp Who Helped Win the Revolution, Stackpole Books, 2003.
Melton, Buckner F.: The Quotable Founding Fathers, Potomac Books, Washington D.C. 2004.
Miller, John Chester. The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. New York: Free Press, 1977.
Perry, Berry. “Jefferson’s Legacy to the Supreme Court: Freedom of Religion.” Journal of Supreme Court History, 31(2). 2006.
Rahe, Philip. “Thomas Jefferson’s Machiavellian Political Science”. Review of Politics 57(3): 449–481, 1995.
Sloan, Joan. Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt, 1995.
Taylor, George Rogers, ed., Hamilton and the National Debt, New York, Penguin, 1950.