<center><img src="images/womancatbed.jpg" alt="woman with cat" height="300" width="400"></center>
Your client is Suzanne Liebenkatz. Suzanne was arrested and charged with trafficking in a controlled substance within 1000 feet of a school.
Suzanne is a 4th grade teacher in Davie, Florida. Suzanne left her job at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. and was pulled over for a broken taillight a block away from the school. When the Davie Police was talking with her about the taillight, they noticed what looked like a vial with a leafy substance in her center console. They looked at the vial, determined that it was marijuana, and arrested Ms. Liebenkatz.
In the search they conducted of her car post arrest, a zipped close gym bag that had 2 gallon bags of the same leafy substance and some small bags and vials was found in the trunk. Her car was seized as a forfeiture.
Suzanne tells you that she has a beloved 14-pound cat named Loki. She grows strong catnip in her garden, dries it, and sells it in vials and small baggies. She uses the profits to fund supplies for her classroom. Suzanne is adamant that the substance seized from her car was catnip; not marijuana. Suzanne has no prior arrests or convictions.
Suzanne is out on bail. Per her teaching contract, she is currently on paid leave pending the results of the trial.
Your partner has asked you to find out the answer to this question:
What is the burden of proof the prosecution must meet in Florida that the substance seized from Suzanne’s car was marijuana?
You decide to start researching. Do you want to research [[Primary Sources]] or [[Secondary Sources]] first?
<img src="images/bagofcatnip.jpg" alt="bag of catnip" height="300" width="150">
You've decided to start your research into the prosecution's burden of proof with primary sources.
Are you sure? Do you feel that you know enough about this topic that you can dive straight into cases or statutes? If not, start with [[Secondary Sources]].
If you are sure, do you want to start with [[Statutes]] or [[Cases]]?<img src="images/catnipbags.jpg" alt="dime bags of catnip" height="300" width="200">
You decide to start with Secondary Sources. This is a good place to start when you are unfamiliar with a subject area and/or a subject is likely to have been written about frequently.
There are several ways to find a secondary source.
Do you want to:
Search [[Novacat]]
OR
Talk to a [[Reference Librarian]]
OR
Search [[Westlaw or Lexis for Secondary Sources]]?You've decided to see if there are any statutes that might govern the prosecutor's burden of proof in Florida.
Do you want to check [[Lexis or Westlaw]] or [[Online Sunshine]]?You've decided to continue your research by checking case law.
Which court will be deciding this case?
[[Broward County Court]] or [[17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida]]?You decide to start with <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Index&Title_Request=XLVI#TitleXLVI">Online Sunshine</a>.
Bright side: This is an easy place to search the Florida Statutes.
Down side: This website does not have any annotations to cases or secondary sources.
Do you want to [[Search Online Sunshine]] or go to [[Lexis or Westlaw]]?No, sorry. Suzanne is charged with a felony, not a misdemeanor, so her case will not be heard in County Court. Please go back to [[Cases]] and try again.Correct! Since Suzanne is charged with a felony, her case will be tried in Circuit Court and since she was arrested in Davie, that court is the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.
Which courts' decisions ''must'' the 17th Circuit follow in deciding Suzanne's case?
[[The U.S. Supreme Court, The Florida Supreme Court, the 4th District Court of Appeal, and the 17th Circuit Court]]
OR
[[The U.S. Supreme Court, The Florida Supreme Court, and the 4th District Court of Appeal]]
OR
[[The U.S. Supreme Court, The Florida Supreme Court, and the 4th District Court of Appeal, plus other DCAs if the 4th Circuit hasn't ruled on a similar case]].Close, but not quite! Since the 17th Judicial Circuit is a trial court in this matter, the decisions of that court are highly persuasive, but not binding.
Return to [[17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida]]Almost right. This lists all of the courts that are typically binding, but if the 4th DCA hasn't ruled on this issue, other DCAs' decisions would be binding under the doctrine of diagonal authority.
Return to [[17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida]].Correct! Because of diagonal authority, this set of courts includes all courts that might be binding on the judge in this case.
Let's start your research with [[Westlaw or Lexis]] (your choice).You have chosen to do a search in the top Google-like box (that is not Google).
One advantage of this approach is that you can filter by all types of content after you search. This can be a cheaper option when you are out in practice.
One disadvantage is that you will get a lot more "false positives" to look through before you filter.
Do you want to do a [[Natural Language]] or [[Boolean/Terms & Connectors]] search first?By limiting your search to Florida and related cases, you are likely to get less "false positives" results to go through, which will probably save you time.
Do you want to do a [[Natural Language]] or a [[Boolean/Terms & Connectors]] search first?Do you want to do a broad search starting with the [[top Google-like box]]?
or
Do you want to [[limit your search to Florida and related cases]]?You search Florida Statutes on Lexis or Westlaw.
Do you want to do a search of the [[Statutes Index]] or just search the [[Statutes Search Box]]?You decide to do a natural language search because you aren't sure what the best terms to use are for your search.
Which search is likely to yield better results?
[[who decides if a substance is marijuana]]
OR
[[burden of proof identity marijuana]]You decide that you are comfortable enough with what terms to search that you are going to do a Boolean or Terms & Connectors search.
You think about what terms to put in the search.
You decide that "burden of proof" is important.
Which of these would yield better results?
[["burden of proof" & drug /p ident! & marijuana]]
OR
[["burden of proof" & drug imitation & (catnip marijuana)]]You click on Florida Statutes on the sidebar, select 2017 and scan the table of contents for "crimes."
You skim the list of crimes for anything having to do with drugs and land on chapter 893. You click on that.
After a few minutes of looking through the topics, you see 893.10, which, while it doesn't fit perfectly, may be worth further examining. You decide to go to Westlaw or Lexis to look at the annotations of [[893.10]].If you KeyCite or Shepardize this statute and look at the Notes of Decisions or Shepard's Report, something here might be helpful.
In Westlaw, under Notes of Decisions, you might want to look at the cases under Quantity of Substance. You might also look at the Key Number Controlled Substances 68. Purifoy v. State Looks like it might be interesting.
Searching Lexis, Wright v. State looks like it could be useful.
You can pick one of these two and continue your research by searching [[Westlaw or Lexis]] for cases.an index search can be a fast way to find in-depth discussions of a topic.
You search the index for "burden of proof." Unfortunately, after clicking through, nothing looks to be on point.
You return to the main [[Statutes Search Box]].You decide to search the statutes via the big statutes search box.
Which terms are going to be important to have in your search query?
[[Broad terms]] like drugs or controlled substances combined with a phrase like "burden of proof"
OR
[[Narrow terms]] like catnip combined with burden of proofGood! Statutes tend to be written more broadly so searching them more broadly usually works better.
A search like "burden of proof" & drug will yield some potentially useful results, such as [[893.10]] or [[893.147]] or [[932.703]]. While narrow searches can be useful for searching secondary sources and case law, they are usually less useful when searching statutes. Try a search with [[Broad terms]] instead.<img src="images/car.jpg" alt=picture of a car" width="300" height="200">
This Florida Statute about the use, possession, manufacture, delivery, transportation, advertisement, or retail sale of drug paraphernalia looks like it could be useful. And it would be useful if your partner had asked you a different question, but after looking through the annotations, you decide to move on to research cases in [[Westlaw or Lexis]].While this search would work decently in Google (though you would have to be careful to choose reliable sources), it won't work quite as well in Westlaw.
You decide to try [[burden of proof identity marijuana]] instead.This search yields an interesting [[ALR]] in the sidebar.
There are also some potentially useful cases. The ALR and the search yield many of the same cases, which is a good sign that your search is on point. You could also try the [[Boolean/Terms & Connectors]] search.ALRs are written by attorneys for attorneys and they are incredibly useful if you can find one on point. In this case, you managed to find one on "Sufficiency of prosecution proof that substance defendant is charged with possessing or selling, or otherwise unlawfully dealing in, is marijuana."
This gives you cases directly on point to search (but make sure to [[check your citations]]) and annotations that let you answer your partner's first question.
Great! You've found the answer to the partner's question.
Please <a href="mailto:rr1067@nova.edu?subject=I%20finished%20Exercise%202"> E-mail Professor Rich</a> to let her know that you finished the exercise.
In that e-mail, please let Professor Rich know 1) What you learned in this exercise and 2) if you enjoyed it and would recommend its use for future classes.This conclusion is not supported by the case law or secondary sources. please return to [[answer your partner's question]].This search takes advantage of advanced search options and that many other substances could be mistaken for marijuana, so you would want to see any cases or secondary sources like this.
It yields several helpful cases or secondary sources and an [[ALR]] directly on point.This search is less useful. There are several places it could be tightened up.
First, imitation may not be the word that courts use for a drug look-alike.
Second, there is no connection specified between drug and imitation and a connection must be specified between all words in a Boolean or Terms and Connectors search.
Third, catnip is not the only substance that might be confused with marijuana, so it excludes other potentially helpful results.
Return to [[Boolean/Terms & Connectors]].You do a keyword search in Novacat for Florida criminal law. After getting the call number, you go to the shelf to look at the available books.
After trying several books, you decide to try the [[Florida Criminal Defense Trial Manual]] first.You go to the reference desk and ask the librarian on duty for help finding a secondary source that will talk about the prosecution's burden of proof in drug cases that the drugs were actually controlled substances in Florida.
The librarian shows you how to search [[ALR]] for materials and also where to find Florida Practitioner materials on criminal law. On that shelf, you find the [[Florida Criminal Defense Trial Manual]].You decide to search Westlaw or Lexis for secondary sources. After all, they will link to primary sources and you're very familar with how to search them to find what you're looking for.
Do you want to do a [[Boolean/Terms & Connectors]] search or a [[Natural Language]] search?You look at this book because it looks like it might have the most practical guidance and the index has a section on drugs that includes "burden of proof" under "proof of substance."
When you turn to that section, it gives you the information to answer your partner's first question and some citations. You will want to check your citations to make sure that the book is still good law. Please remember to also use your citations to find other [[Cases]].
Reassuringly, at the bottom of the page, it tells you that this page was last updated 8/2017, so your checking will probably be just to dot your i's and cross your t's. After you have KeyCited or Shepardized the cases and statutes you've found to make sure they're still good law, you are ready to [[answer your partner's question]].<img src="images/catnipgarden.jpg" alt="catnip garden" height="300" width="150">
I see you're ready to answer the question. What's the answer?
[[The prosecution bears the burden of proof that the substance is marijuana but the defense must show any other exculpatory evidence]]
OR
[[The defense bears the burden of proof that the substance is not marijuana]]