Overview of Clements v. State The case of Clements v. State is an example of how the legal framework of stalking laws in Texas should be interpreted and the effectiveness of this law to ensure justice for the victims. The case depicts how the law should operate despite certain vagueness in aspects of the First Amendment. The decision of the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas to uphold the conviction while disagreeing with some conclusions arrived at by the trial court proves that stalkers will not be allowed to slide through cracks in the legal system. The case, based on a sequence of events where the complainant, Jennifer Clements, was subject to psychological trauma accompanied by an imminent physical threat to her from Nathan Clement, her estranged husband, is a forthright condition of stalking which complies with the Statues of …show more content…
If this condition is not met, there is no scope for unconstitutional vagueness. In the case of Clements v. State, Nathan was aware of the criminality of his behavior. On 19 December 1996, he fled the scene at parking lot of Texas Instruments. He did not wait around for the security guard to question him. This alone proves that his actions do not reflect a person with normal intelligence who could not comprehend the criminality of his actions. If that was the case, he would have stayed behind to confront the security guard on his marital rights (Schmalleger, Hall & Dolatowski, 2010). Furthermore, threatening bodily harm (of anyone) is illegal. This is a basic rule of law which everyone with normal intelligence will acknowledge. Nathan Clements threatened bodily harm of Jennifer Clements and her friends on more than one occasion. Hence, there is no scope for unconstitutional vagueness in this case and the decision by the for the First District of Texas is