Jeffrey MacDonald Case
Step 1. Select a current events case, in the last ten years, to analyze in the American criminal justice system. The case should be one where a life sentence or death sentence was the outcome.
JEFFREY MACDONALD
http://www.themacdonaldcase.com/
Step 2. Describe the details of the case, including the nature of the offense, background of the offender, and an analysis of each component in the criminal justice system: advantages/disadvantages of police procedures, details and/or issues with court proceedings, and whether the correctional sentence was appropriate based on the nature of the offense and background of the offender.
Step 3. Conclude your paper by thoroughly analyzing the impact this case has had or will have on future criminal justice outcomes. Careful critical thinking is required here. Invest considerable effort in thinking about what you have learned over the course of the term in addressing this final aspect of the mission.
The sources you are to use to obtain information for your descriptions of the criminal justice process include the course reading material and two peer-reviewed journal articles. As an academic paper, it must contain APA formatted citations throughout the paper whenever information is being presented from a source.
Even though you may have personal experience in the field (e.g. police officer) or use knowledge obtained in previous courses, information used in this paper must be supported through the use of citations which meet the criteria for sources indicated above.
Here are the sections that should appear in your paper, each of which should be subtitled:
· Introduction
· Description of the case (including the nature of the offense and the background of the offender)
· Police procedures
· Court proceedings
· Correctional sentence
· Analysis of the impact this case has had/will have on the American criminal justice system process
