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Europeia v. Samsara; Mock Trial
Topic Started: Dec 15 2013, 08:10 PM (989 Views)
Malashaan
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Supreme Malassimo

I will look into the status of this, and make sure it is completed shortly.
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I personally look forward to the Maltatorship in the Speakership..
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Malashaan
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Supreme Malassimo

Having looked into the state of this, I have decided that the ruling should be written as part of a group training project - please sign up here if you are interested.
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Imperium
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Natus in igne, et mortuus est in glaciem.

Interesting concept
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Imperium Aebaxis | The Empire of Aebax | Aebaxian Empire

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Malashaan
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Supreme Malassimo

Work on the ruling has started in a password protected forum. If you want to participate and I haven't already sent you the password, PM me.
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Malashaan
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Just a quick update - the group is making good progress and has reached a decision on two of four charges. They are doing a great job so far.
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Moronist Decisions
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As Counsel for the Defense, I would like to inquire about the status of the ruling.
Moronist Decisions ED EOB EIN ESH ESS


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Formerly: Attorney General, Associate Justice/PIP, World Assembly Delegate, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of World Assembly Affairs, Senator
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Malashaan
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The drafting group has nearly finished their ruling.
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Writinglegend
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Sleepy Gleg.

As head of the drafting group, and writer of the judgement, it is an honor to deliver the judgement of Europeia v Samsara

Quote:
 
High Court of Europeia

Judgement

Europeia v. Samsara

before

The Right Honourable Matthew Vinage


Prosecutor : Republic of Europeia ; represented by Attorney General The Right Honourable Kraken

Defendant : Samsara ; represented by The Right Honourable Moronist Decisions


[1] On the 17th December 2013 the defendant was brought before the High Court. The defendant plead not guilty to the following charges: Section 10: Identity Theft, Section 12: Deceiving the Public, Section 17: Unlawful Use of a Proxy, and Section 19: Obscenity. The statement of facts with regards to this case can be found here.


Unlawful Use of a Proxy

[2] The Crime of Unlawful Use of a Proxy is defined as follows:

Quote:
 
Any citizen who uses a proxy, defined as a website, program, or server which allows said citizen to change or conceal their Internet Protocol Address, without a legitimate proxy waiver, to view the forums of Europeia, is guilty of the offense of Unlawful Use of a Proxy and is liable to a punishment at judicial discretion not exceeding a two (2) month ban.


[3] Thus the Crime of Unlawful Use of a Proxy can be committed through the following path:

(1) Knowing use of a proxy by a member to conceal identity.

[4] The Panel of Judges has dismissed the above path based on the lack of evidence to support the prosecution's argument. It was mentioned that the IP could have been checked from a variety of programs to determine whether it was a proxy or not.

[5] Further, new internet connections have been known to fluctuate for users until it "beds in" on the real location of the user. This could cause for the varying IP addresses in different parts of the world.

[6] With limited evidence regarding the IP, and the possibility of it just fluctuating, the Panel of Judges had dismissed the path.


[7] Not having fulfilled the criteria for conviction, the Court finds Samsara

NOT GUILTY

of Unlawful Use of a Proxy.

Judicial Note:
[8] The Court would like to note that the lack of a “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard caused for much discussions on the definition of what would be enough evidence to convict. It may be wise in the future to define this term.



Identity Theft

[9] The Crime of Identity Theft is defined as follows:

Quote:
 
Anyone who knowingly impersonates or attempts to impersonate another member of Europeia is guilty of the offense of Identity Theft under this law, and liable to a punishment at judicial discretion not exceeding an eight (8) month ban.


[10] Thus the crime of Identity Theft can be committed through the following paths:

(a) Knowingly impersonating another member of Europeia and;
(b) Attempting to impersonate another member of Europeia

[11] The Panel of Judges left opened both paths and further questioned a ‘Mens Rea’ defense (further explained in Hyango v Jerrymani. To answer whether path ‘A’ is correct, the Jury answered the following questions:

(a) Did Samsara know that she was impersonating Lethen?
(b) Did Samsara realize this was illegal?

[12] For question ‘A’, the Panel of Judges answered that yes, Samsara realized she was impersonating Lethen, due to the factual evidence of the signature and avatar change as soon as Lethen took a LOA. Furthermore, it seemed that Samsara knew she was impersonating Lethen due to the fact of the name change, where she changed her name to ‘Lethun’, a name similar to ‘Lethen’. Bringing this evidence together the Panel of Judges answered that Samsara did know she was impersonating Lethen.

[13] For question ‘B’ the Panel of Judges recognized that Samsara did, in fact, run in a name similar to Lethen’s, and concluded that Samsara was using this to her own personal advantage to get votes. So the Panel of Judges figured out that Samsara did know that this was illegal.

[14] This concludes that both the paths of ‘A’ and ‘B’ were used and that Mens Rea and Actus Reus were both present.

[15] Looking at the Defense’s argument, they stated the following:

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It is a relevant fact that an administrator had to have approved the username to Lethun. It indicated that the change in screen name, at least to one Europeian, did not indicate a problem with the name per-se.


The Panel of Judges ruled this out as a defense, due to the persuasive precedent mentioned by Kraketopia:

Quote:
 
The fact that an administrator deemed the name change legitimate holds little credibility here. Administrators have precedence when it comes to violations of Zetaboards policy, but where matters of the Court are involved, they have no jurisdiction. In Europeia v. Zenny, Zenny received the Admins' consent to post her images/articles, but this did not prevent the Court from trying her for Obscenity.


This was removed as a worthy defense due to the persuasive precedent.


[16] Having fulfilled the criteria for conviction, the court finds Samsara

Guilty

of Identity Theft and sentences her to a four month ban.


Obscenity

[17] The crime of Obscenity can be described as follows:

Quote:
 
(19) Anyone who knowingly uses, in excess, obscene, offensive, profane or derogatory language or implications towards another Europeian, on the Europeian forums or RMB, or as a representative, authorized or unauthorized, of Europeia is guilty of the offense of Obscenity and is liable to a punishment at judicial discretion not exceeding a ban of 48 hours.


[18] Thus, the crime of Obscenity can be committed through the following paths:

(a) Using, in excess, obscene, offensive, profane or derogatory language or implications towards another Europeian on the forums.
(b) Using, in excess, obscene, offensive, profane or derogatory language or implications towards another Europeian on the RMB.
(c) Using, in excess, obscene, offensive, profane or derogatory language or implications towards another Europeian as a representative, authorized or unauthorized.

[19] The Panel of Judges questioned the comments made and analyzed the crime of obscenity, and the following:

Quote:
 
towards another Europeian


[20] The Panel of Judges further recognized that Samsara made comments about the Europeian government, and not another Europeian, therefore eliminating all three paths.

[21] The Panel of Judges noted that the law states that the act of Obscenity is committed through Europeians, and therefore, eliminates the fact that Samsara was breaking the law of Obscenity.


[22] Having failed the criteria needed to be found guilty, the Court finds Samsara

Not Guilty

Of the crime Obscenity.


Deceiving the Public

[23] The crime of Deceiving the Public is defined as follows:

Quote:
 
(23) Anyone who knowingly:

(i) provides members with misleading or deceitful information in order to favor one's self; or,

(ii) provides members with misleading or deceitful information to attempt to obtain through deceit or deliberate silence or omission more than one account with citizenship in Europeia

is guilty of the offense of Deceiving the Public and is liable to a punishment at judicial discretion not exceeding an eight (8) month ban.


[24] Therefore, the crime of Deceiving the Public can be committed through the following paths:

(a) Providing members with misleading or deceitful information in order to favor one’s self
(b) provides members with misleading or deceitful information to attempt to obtain through deceit or deliberate silence or omission more than one account with citizenship in Europeia.

[25] The second path was immediately ruled out by the Panel of Judges, Samsara did not lie to attempt to deceitfully have more than one account with citizenship in Europeia.

[26] The Panel of Judges did, in fact, leave open option one, as Samsara did receive votes while having a similar name to Lethen’s and signature.

[27] Although Samsara only got three views on her campaign thread, she still received votes to be elected into the Senate, enough to actually be elected. Running under a name similar to Lethen’s and signature, proves that Samsara deceived voters. Going back to the aforementioned Identity Theft charge, Samsara did commit Identity Theft, so was trying to impersonate Lethen. Samsara then used this identity for her own personal gain to be elected to the Senate, something the Panel of Justices noted.

[28] The next step was to prove whether Samsara did this knowingly. She says (as recorded in the obscenity charge) that he 'just wanted to make a difference', which hints that he did this deliberately, to make a difference.

[29] Also taking into account that the confession wasn't explicit enough and could have been easily meant as ‘I just joined the race’, and that Samsara had enough knowledge of Lethen to change her profile picture and signature to something similar to his, therefore knowing who he was on Europeia, and showing that Samsara knowingly did this.

[30] The Panel of Judges also notes that ‘information’ can be defined as an avatar and signature (a form of Identity and information about oneself) , and, therefore, Samsara used deceitful information to favor herself.


[31] Having fulfilled the criteria for conviction, the Court finds Samsara

Guilty

of Deceiving the Public and sentences her to a three month ban


[32] Bans are effective once an administrator inputs the ban
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Moronist Decisions
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Thank you, your honor. Are the bans to be applied consecutively or concurrently? (out of morbid curiosity regarding the law)
Edited by Moronist Decisions, Oct 6 2014, 08:22 PM.
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Kraketopia
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Thank you, your honour.

I believe the rulings issued were just and reasonable, and are similar to what I would have given if I were judging the case. Obviously I wouldn't be saying that if this was a real case, as it wouldn't be very professional, but I thought it would be interesting to compare my findings with the panel's.

MD, you did a great job defending Samsara, and brought in arguments that made it difficult to prosecute her, particularly regarding the IP proxy. Well done.
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