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Criminal Law Keyed to Capers
Clark v. Arizona
Citation:
548 U.S. 735 (2006)Facts
In the early hours of June 21, 2000, Officer Jeffrey Moritz of the Flagstaff Police responded in uniform to complaints that a pickup truck with loud music blaring was circling a residential block. The officer requested petitioner, Eric Clark, to pull over. Less than a minute later, Clark shot the officer, who died soon after. Clark was charged with first-degree murder for intentionally or knowingly killing a law enforcement officer in the line of duty. In March 2001, Clark was found incompetent to stand trial and was committed to a state hospital for treatment, but two years later the same trial court found his competence restored and ordered him to be tried. At trial, Clark did not contest the shooting and death, but relied on his undisputed paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the incident in denying that he had the specific intent to shoot a law enforcement officer or knowledge that he was doing so, as required by the statute.
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