Consider yourself a paralegal, draft a memo based on the following fact pattern. Only requirement must include 5 primary sources. Her case is pending in the 13th Circuit here in Tampa. What I am including below are the notes from our interview with Ms. Howard. Senior Atty. __________________________________ Hope and her husband Chad were high school sweethearts who married each other in 2010, two years after they graduated from high school. Hope works as a bank teller for Suncoast Credit Union and Chad worked for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office as a Deputy. They had a home in Plant City, FL. A couple of years into their marriage, Chad started working a lot of "extra jobs" to earn money by providing security (while in uniform) to businesses, some of which were nightclubs in the greater Tampa Bay area. While working these jobs, Chad told several people that women at these clubs were constantly hitting on him. In 2015, Hope noticed Chad was spending a lot more time than usual away from home. She started getting suspicious that he was having an affair because, on more than one occasion, she caught him in a lie regarding his whereabouts. One night when he was running late getting home, Hope confronted him and said she suspected he was having an affair that had been going on for months. To her surprise, he admitted he was unfaithful. He told her he met a woman at one of the clubs and he had begun an affair with her. He promised he was in the process of breaking it off and stated he wanted to work on their marriage. It was difficult, but through counseling and lots of hard work, the two of them remained together and Hope began to trust Chad again. To Hope, everything seemed back to normal until this year. That's when Chad started signing up for extra jobs again, though not at clubs this time, but at concert venues. The concerts got out late and once again, Chad wasn't home on many nights when Hope fell asleep. She started to worry about his faithfulness to the marriage. One night, she received a text from a person she didn't know who identified herself as "Amber." Amber said, "U don't no me but I no Chad ...... well." The next text, which Amber sent just a few seconds later was a photo of Amber and Chad kissing. A third text said, "2nite Chads w me." Hope called Chad, but Chad didn't answer his phone. He was supposed to be working a concert, but in the picture Amber sent, he wasn't wearing his uniform and they looked like they were sitting on a couch somewhere.

Chad came home an hour later dressed in his uniform. When Hope asked where he had been, he replied, "At my extra job." Hope then showed him the text messages she had received from Amber and Chad seemed shocked. Chad admitted he had been with Amber that night, but he had no idea she had Hope's cell number, nor did he know she'd sent photos or texts to Hope. Chad apologized, admitted to the affair, and told Hope the problem was all his. He said he needed time to sort his feelings. Hope suggested he pack his bags and get out. He moved into an apartment the next day. Over the next few weeks, Chad saw Amber off and on. Every time he did, Amber would text Hope. When Hope told Chad about these texts and photos, he apologized and said he had asked Amber on multiple occasions to stop messing with Hope. Chad told Hope he wanted to work on their marriage again because "you are the love of my life," but he couldn't seem to let go of Amber. Hope consulted a family lawyer, but she couldn't bring herself to file for divorce. Chad kept promising he wanted her back, but not long after, Hope would get another text from Amber. Hope received a text message from Chad saying he wanted her to come over to his apartment. He said she should come over after she got off work because he had something important to tell her. Hope thought maybe he was going to tell her he and Amber were done and he was ready to reconcile. When Hope arrived at his apartment, she saw his Jeep and his police cruiser parked outside of the apartment, so she knew he was home. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. She then opened the door, announcing gently "Hello?" as she walked in, and began to look for Chad inside the apartment. What she found was Amber and Chad together in his room talking and acting affectionately towards each other. Chad seemed shocked Hope was there, but Amber laughed and said, "You're such an idiot!" Hope left the apartment in a rage, crying and screaming "I hate her! I hate him! I'm done!!!" Hope walked to her car, sat in it, and sobbed. She slammed the steering wheel with her hands, she screamed at the top of her lungs. She knew she was too angry to drive. She called her best friend Nikki and told her everything. Nikki told her she had to calm down and that she should come over right away. She said, "Get away from there, Hope. It's not good for you to be there. Come see me. I'm home. You need to calm down and get away from there. Please come over now." Hope thanked Nikki for being such a good friend. Hope said as soon as she was calm enough to drive, she was coming over. Their conversation lasted for less than a minute. For the next three minutes or so, Hope started to calm down. She thought she was okay to drive. She inhaled and exhaled, and started her car. Then she saw Amber and Chad walk out of the apartment together. Chad was yelling at Amber and Amber was laughing and rolling her eyes. Amber got into her car, drove off, and Chad got into his Jeep. Neither

one of them saw Hope sitting in her car because she parked in front of the building next to Chad's apartment building. Not long after Amber drove off, Hope received one more text. It was from Amber. It was a video of her and Chad having sex. Seeing that video brought all of the rage and hatred from seeing them together up again in Hope. Chad drove off in his Jeep in the direction of his and Hope's house. Hope followed him. Hope says it was like she was at war with herself because she loved Chad and she wanted to kill him all at the same time. She started driving her car faster in a fit of rage. They were on I-4 traveling approximately 89 mph. She drove behind Chad in the next lane over from his and rammed the back of his Jeep from the side, lifting it off the ground as she did so. His back wheels came off the road and to her surprise, the Jeep flipped over and Chad fell out of the open-area driver's side "door." Chad wasn't wearing a seatbelt. When Hope realized what she had done, she panicked, pulled her car over and kept repeating, "What have I done?! Oh Chad, I'm so sorry!" She got out of her car, ran to Chad, and cried over his body. Another driver on the road, who witnessed the accident, called 911. When the paramedics arrived, she told them, "You've got to help him! Please, somebody help my husband!" Unfortunately, Chad's internal organs were damaged when he was thrown from the Jeep and his chest cavity filled up with blood. He began to suffocate when his blood filled his lungs. He died shortly thereafter. When the police officers arrived, to Hope's horror, she recognized them. The accident happened within the HCSO's jurisdiction. Obviously, the first responding deputies were shocked, saddened, and upset by seeing their colleague and friend dying in the roadway. Hope said she just went numb when she saw them react to the situation. She said it was as if her mind went into overload and she wasn't mentally there anymore. The next thing she remembers, she was at the police station in a room by herself. Detective Eric Thompson was the only person in the room with her. We have a video and audio recording of the interrogation. Detective Thompson complied with the law in warning her before the start of the interrogation, recording the interrogation, and asking Hope if she waived her rights and was willing to answer questions before he interrogated her. At first, Hope was reluctant to talk to Thompson. She told us she "was afraid because he was one of them" referring to the fact that both he and her husband worked for the same law enforcement agency. She was fine telling Thompson about the history of Chad's marital infidelity and about Amber, but when Thompson started to ask her about what led to Chad's death, Hope shut down. She said she wasn't sure she had the energy to keep going, that she was so tired and her head was throbbing. She also admitted she was afraid Thompson and his colleagues might take it out on her if they found out she was responsible for his death.

At this point, Detective Thompson promised Hope that if there was any way they could prosecute Amber, they would. Specifically, Thompson said, "If you can tell us about what happened next, we can ask the State Attorney (SA) to prosecute Amber for harassing you. What Amber did to you is criminal. She should be treated like one." Hope replied, "If you can promise me you'll throw that woman in jail for what she did, I promise you I'll tell you everything that happened." Thompson replied, "I promise that I will call the State Attorney as soon as this is over and do my best to get charges against Amber for harassing you. Also, if you cooperate, I'm sure the SA will be lenient with you. You can probably claim sudden passion and get a lighter sentence. Again, if you work with us, we'll work with you to see that you get leniency from the SA and Amber gets what's coming to her." After this, Hope began describing the events from earlier that day. _________________________________ After Hope gave a full statement, she was arrested and charged with Chad's murder. The recorded statement that Hope provided will be used against Hope at trial. Amber has not been prosecuted. I spoke with the prosecutor assigned to Hope's murder case and it doesn't appear Amber will ever be prosecuted for anything. This leads to the issues I'd like you to address in your memo. First, can Hope successfully claim sudden passion in her murder case? Second, do Thompson's promises to Hope render her statement involuntary? I don't know much about these issues, but my paralegal suggests there is statutory and common law on both issues.