You are a judge. The defendant stands before you charged with murder. The Crown has agreed
that she can be tried by a judge alone, without a jury. The following factual scenario
summarizes the evidence that has emerged over the course of the trial. It is now time for you
to render a verdict and give your reasons.
Review the factual scenario carefully, and then write a judgment explaining whether the
defendant should be convicted of the offence with which she is charged, or of a lesser offence,
or should be acquitted.
You should begin with a brief summary of the relevant facts. If facts are unclear or open to
competing interpretations, consider all possibilities and state any conclusions you are reaching
and why.
You should also be sure to discuss all relevant points of law, including the Charter, case law and
Criminal Code provisions outlining the elements of the offences in question, and apply them to
the facts of this case. If the state of the law is unclear or undecided, or if there are important
dissenting opinions, discuss. Be sure to address both the Crown and defence positions and
identify and assess their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Format
Your assignment can be a maximum of 12 pages in length
Use headings (just as in the judgments you’ve read) to assist in organizing your analysis.
Factual Scenario
Hyun-mi and Maja are both brilliant and innovative pharmaceutical engineers. They have been
fierce rivals since they met 20 years ago as undergraduate students in the biomedical
engineering program at U of T and competed with one another for the top spot in their
anatomy class. They both went on to medical school and then earned their PhDs, Hyun-mi at
Stanford and Maja at MIT.
They are now employed by rival pharmaceutical companies. Hyun-mi works for Xetopa
Medical, while Maja works for Genam Biotechnology. Both Hyun-mi and Maja and their
respective companies have been hard at work developing a new “tumour agnostic” cancer drug
– a drug that could be used to treat any kind of cancer, regardless of where it is in the body, so
long as the tumor has the specific molecular alteration that the drug targets. If these efforts are
successful they would revolutionize cancer treatment – and be worth billions of dollars to the
company that develops and patents the drug first.