Leto, Vladimir, Hasimir and Pardot are college students and close friends studying together at Arrakis University, in the sunny state of Tleilaxia. All four are pre-law majors and dead-set on going to law school, but they are all desperately anxious about taking the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). Leto suggests that they form a study group, but Vladimir thinks that won't be good enough. Instead, one night when the four of them are walking home from school, Vladimir suggests stealing an advance copy of the July 2nd (2021) LSAT along with an answer key.

Hasimir enthusiastically agrees with Vladimir's idea, but Pardot is skeptical that the scheme would work. Vladimir, though, is ready with a plan. Vladimir's uncle, Shaddam, runs an educational services company called Landsraat Inc. Vladimir has helped out with the business before and even created a separate subsidiary within the company, Harkonnen LLC.

Vladimir proposes that the four friends modify the company and re-incorporate Harkonnen as a dummy testing company. Next, they write to the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) and register Harkonnen as an LSAT testing center. LSAC will send the July 2nd exam (and the answer key) to Harkonnen a few days in advance of the test. After memorizing the answer key, Leto, Vladimir, Hasimir and Pardot can all go take the exam at separate independent testing centers. With perfect scores on the LSAT, all four of them are sure to be accepted at Columbia or even Stanford. There's even an outside shot that one of them could get into Yale.

After much debate, the four friends agree, although Leto is plagued by doubt because the scheme is morally wrong.

The four get to work implementing their plan. Vladimir drafts his younger brother, Feyd- Rautha, to be a dummy student. Feyd-Rautha signs up to take a bunch of tests in order to give the appearance of a real testing site. He also, of course, signs up for the July 2nd LSAT. Feyd is actually still in high school, but quickly agrees after Vladimir offers to pay him $500. Harkonnen registers as a testing site with LSAC and is assigned a liaison within LSAC called Chani. Although Leto is still worried, he's amazed when Vladimir shows up in late June with the test and answer key in hand!

July 2nd turns out to be a day that none of them would ever forget.

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Vladimir makes his way to Alfred's Test-o-Rama and gets through the LSAT smoothly. But on his way out the door he's arrested by a team of Tleilaxian police officers. Pardot's experience is similar--except the officers interrupt his test at Bartholomew's Test-o-Matic so he doesn't even get to finish. Vladimir and Pardot are brought immediately to Tleilaxia Superior Court where they meet Leto. Leto is a wreck--wracked by guilt, he turned himself into Tleilaxian authorities and notified LSAT of the cheating scheme two hours before the test began.

Any confusion at how LSAT notified so many police officers so quickly dissipates when Judge Norma Cenva announces that, on the basis of grand jury testimony from undercover police officer Hasimir--posing for the last five years as a college student--Leto, Vladimir, Pardot, Feyd- Rautha, Shaddam and Chani are being charged with the murder of Jamis, an LSAC inspector sent to Harkonnen's testing site on June 19th to investigate test conditions. The six also face a number of other charges.

Assistant District Attorney Duncan Idaho explains that Jamis was sent to verify the legitimacy of the testing site where he was brutally murdered by Vladimir to keep the scheme secret. Agent Hasimir had installed secret cameras at the testing site. A surveillance camera installed in the site's elevator captured footage which clearly showed Vladimir stabbing Jamis to death with an elongated tooth-like knife. A shocked Pardot is visible in the surveillance footage--not moving to help, but not intervening to help Jamis either. ADA Idaho explains that Chani is being charged because she knew that the Harkonnen testing center was a scam but continued to hide that information from LSAC.

Pandemonium erupts in the court-room after ADA Idaho reads out the charges. No one disputes the facts, but Chani maintains that she was only helping because she felt threatened by Vladimir after he made a post on Facebook about LSAC which included her employee ID number. Leto, for his part, insists that he knew nothing about anything other than the test scam. Shaddam denies even knowing that. Meanwhile, Vladimir's attorney announces his intention to plead Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, explaining that Vladimir has been suffering from early onset schizophrenia. His delusions make him intensely claustrophobic, and Vladimir's attorney states that any imprisonment (even on bail) would be likely to make Vladimir suicidal.

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Immediately after the arraignment, ADA Idaho meets privately with the six defendants. He announces that he is seeking the death penalty for Vladimir and Pardot. He will seek life imprisonment for Leto. In consideration of Feyd-Rautha's age and Chani's precarious position, he offers to charge them only with conspiracy to commit fraud if they agree to testify against their friends. If they decline, he'll throw the book at them and seek the death penalty. However, Idaho refuses to make any offer to Shaddam--Shaddam is of Corrinese ethnicity and ADA Idaho is openly racist; "I don't make deals with Corrino's," he explains. Idaho also charges Shaddam for unlawfully creating Harkonnen as a subsidiaryan administrative violation in Tleilaxia, which uses the old Dutch corporate chartering system. He emphatically states again that, if anyone refuses a deal, he will immediately seek the death penalty against them.

You are fresh out of law school clerking for Judge Cenva, a trial judge with extensive experience in complex criminal litigation. Although she will wait for the parties' briefs before making any final decision, she wants to anticipate any issues that might arise. She has asked you to write her an informal memorandum explaining what each defendant's liability might be, what defenses they might raise, and the legality of any plea deal they might accept.