Discuss the class of offenses known as obstructing justice. Assume these offenses fall into two general categories and each category has similar impact on the administration of justice. What are your two categories and why?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• The crimes are tampering with evidence and tampering with witnesses in one category (offense which adversely affect the truth finding process and corrupt the judge or jury's view of the evidence and the appropriate legal result) and offenses such as resisting an officer or resisting arrest (which occur on the front end of a criminal episode and impact the system in different ways: a valid arrest is not made, a law enforcement officer or other citizen is endangered, a witness is not served a subpoena, etc.). Generally, the latter category jeopardizes a case from being commenced and the former category pollutes or degrades the process once a case has commenced.
• Students may also refer to failure to appear, bail jumping, and becoming a fugitive in their discussion, and this would be acceptable. These offenses most closely resemble the latter category in that the process is frozen and cannot proceed, but they do not necessarily impact the integrity of the process.