Advice

[poeticklutz]

I am in an AP class and our next big assignment is Raskolnikov's trial. I am on the prosecution and our goal is to have Raskolnikov executed. We are not using the part of the epilogue where it mentions that he is sent off to siberia and nobody on the jury is even supposed to have read the book to know that.

If anyone has any ideas on what we could bring up in court or what we should ask witnesses that would be awesome! Currently we seem to be finding more to support defense because we can not include anything from dreams or anything that goes on in Raskolnikov's mind.

Thank you!

[Redzeppelin]

Your goal is to get Raskolnikov the death penalty? How can that be - since Porfiry himself told Raskolnikov that his sentence would be lighter if he confessed on his own (which he did) than if Porfiry had to arrest him.

I suppose you could simply lay out the facts: Raskolnikov killed two innocent women in cold blood. There were no mitigating circumstances (aside from the add-on of saving the children from the fire in the epilogue) with perhaps the minor exception of a "clean" record and character witnesses who would vouch that Raskolnikov freely gave away his money (of which he had little)to help others. The fact that he killed them to validate himself might get him put away into an insane asylum, but death?

But - you may be right. Going for the death penalty may be tough. Only the brutality of the murders, the innocence of the victims and the unrepentant, unremorseful attitude of Raskolnikov are on your side. You may have better luck arguing about the "degree" of Raskolnikov's crime - is he guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder or another charge?

Good luck