Corrections/Police Analysis of Substantive Criminal

Corrections/Police

Analysis of Substantive Criminal Law Case

On September 17, 2009, Raymond Clark III was arrested and charged with the murder of Annie Le (Arnsdorf, Miller, Korn and Needham, 2009). The evidence of Clark's involvement in Le's death now seems substantial. There is in fact a DNA match and evidence that his card was swiped prior to and e-mails that confirm his contact with her just prior to her disappearance. The evidence that he murdered her in a premeditated fashion seems sparse so far. The way in which her body was hidden appears to be conflicting with long-term planning. As a matter of law, premeditation can occur over a very short period of time (Dershowitz, Alan. (2009).

Raymond Clark III is animal research technician charged with killing a Yale University graduate student. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and a new charge of felony murder. Raymond Clark III is charged with strangling 24-year-old Annie Le back in September, five days before she was to be married. He appeared in New Haven Superior Court in an orange jumpsuit with his hands and legs shackled to enter the pleas and to waive his right to a probable cause hearing at which he could have challenged whether prosecutors had enough evidence to try him. Clark has been in jail with a bail of $3 million on the murder charge. Prosecutors recently revealed that they were adding a felony murder count (Yale Lab Tech Hit with 2nd Murder Charge, 2010).

Felony murder happens when a person is killed during the commission of a felony or an attempted felony. The felony could be that of robbery, burglary, kidnapping or sexual assault. Connecticut's felony murder law does not require prosecutors to prove that the killing was intentional. Details surrounding the new charge, including what the alleged felony was, have not been released. Prosecutors said in court they would give details later. Murder and felony murder both carry a sentence of 25 to 60 years in prison (Yale Lab Tech Hit with 2nd Murder Charge, 2010).

Le's body was discovered stuffed behind a research lab wall in September on the day she was supposed to get married on Long Island. An autopsy reveled that she was strangled, but the motive remains unclear. According to search warrants, two days before Clark was arrested, investigators found blood in plain view on the kitchen floor near the entrance to his apartment. The warrants do not specify the source of the blood. Authorities removed plastic door panels and carpeting with blood-like stains from the car in which Clark was riding in the hours after Le disappeared. Police say a green-ink pen found under Le's body had her blood and Clark's DNA on it. Police say that Clark signed into the secure building with a green pen on Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared. DNA from Le and Clark was also found on a bloody sock that was hidden in the ceiling (Yale Lab Tech Hit with 2nd Murder Charge, 2010).