When asked 'what's the worst that can happen in a case of self-defense', I often tell others it can be much more than you imagine.
What does that mean?
Well, in spite of your claim of self-defense, you may go to prison for the rest of your life, especially if you kill somebody. In California, even if you have a valid self-defense claim, the DA’s office will typically still file charges on you.
I recently had a client, a 50-year-old nurse, who was in her own home when her ex-boyfriend (for 26 years) came over. He’d moved out 7 months earlier. There was a small history of domestic violence. But in fact, he had recently assaulted their 22-year-old daughter by head-butting her. While they were discussing things downstairs in the living room, he picked up a sledgehammer. She grew worried, told him to leave, and retreated upstairs. He put down the hammer but followed her upstairs and told her he did not have to leave.
Once upstairs, he was yelling at her. Finally, she grabbed her gun. She’s a cancer survivor. She’s had a double mastectomy. She’s half his size, and she told him to leave. He went for the gun, and she shot him. The bullet went through his rib cage and he died. She tried to save him by doing CPR.
The jury convicted her of murder despite the fact that she said that she was scared for her life.
Again, the general principle is correct as far as the law is concerned: You can defend yourself as long as you’re scared of great bodily injury—and that’s not such a high standard. Great bodily injury could be pretty much anything. I was just at a preliminary hearing the other day where the complaining witness had been hit and received two bruises under the eye. This qualified as great bodily injury.
Case In Point:
Every case can obviously vary, but there is no way to predict how the legal system will determine the outcome in your case.
For example, I just had a case where a bouncer was being a jerk to my client, a professional athlete, and would not let him into an after party, despite the fact that he had the proper wristband. The bouncer yanked on the wristband and chest-bumped him. My client took a swing and hit the bouncer in the nose, fracturing it—a lucky punch. My guy is 5′ 7″ and 160; the bouncer was 6′ 2″ and 225. He and two other guys beat the crap out of my client and choked him out; I even had pictures. So listen, if my guy hit him in the cheek, it would have been filed as a misdemeanor, with a five-day jail offer; instead, it was filed as a felony strike case, and the original offer was two years in state prison. My guy had NO record and was shitting a brick for almost a year. I took the case over from another lawyer, and eventually got the offer down to a year, which was still ridiculous, and eventually I was able to get him a misdemeanor with no jail time but lots of community service and restitution.
So here is a situation where my guy was NOT the initial aggressor, but his punch was deemed inappropriate by the DA’s Office, and because the guy had a broken nose, despite the fact that afterwards three guys beat my client, they initially wanted state prison! This is what I deal with all the time.
A Scenario:
Now, when asked about a certain scenario, things can change. For instance, let's say we are talking about a robbery.
If you’re being robbed, you can just kill the other person. Let me repeat that as it bears repeating. If you’re being robbed, you can take out your gun and shoot the person dead, and no one will prosecute you.
So why the differences in 'self-defense' in a robbery versus an altercation?
The difference is, it’s clear: You are the victim of a crime. And people know that robberies often result in death. I don’t care if the assailant just has his finger under his shirt.
To further this, if someone walks into a store where I am, and pulls a gun, (telling everyone to get down) – even if I can safely run away, I can legally intervene. Yes. Once somebody is engaged in felonious conduct, you can do whatever you do to stop him. So the difference between someone issuing a threat of violence versus an order to 'give me your wallet' can make the difference in a self-defense case.
A tougher question is, let’s say you’re walking down the street and you come upon a fight: One guy is pummeling another guy to the point where people are shouting, “Stop, stop, you’re going to kill him.” You might decide to take out your gun and shoot him just to save the other person’s life. But I’m not sure it’s going to go well for you in court.
You do not know anything about how the fight started, whether a weapon had already been used, or even whether the person being beaten was the initial aggressor — you don’t know anything. That’s the problem. It’s better to try and break it up, as opposed to killing somebody. Again, most scenarios of this kind don’t have easy answers. But robbery is clear-cut.
To review some of the many aspects of self-defense and how situations might affect court outcomes, click here for the full discussion.
Special thanks to Sam Harris at SamHarris.org
The
worst that can happen is that you go to prison for the rest of your
life, especially if you kill somebody. In California, even if you have a
valid self-defense claim, the DA’s office will typically still file
charges on you. I recently had a client, a 50-year-old nurse, who was in
her own home when her ex-boyfriend (for 26 years) came over. He’d moved
out 7 months earlier. There was a small history of domestic violence.
But in fact, he had recently assaulted their 22-year-old daughter by
head-butting her. While they were discussing things downstairs in the
living room, he picked up a sledgehammer. She grew worried, told him to
leave, and retreated upstairs. He put down the hammer but followed her
upstairs and told her he did not have to leave. Once upstairs, he was
yelling at her. Finally, she grabbed her gun. She’s a cancer survivor.
She’s had a double mastectomy. She’s half his size, and she told him to
leave. He went for the gun, and she shot him. The bullet went through
his rib cage and he died. She tried to save him by doing CPR.
The jury convicted her of murder despite the fact that she said that she
was scared for her life. Again, the general principle is correct as far
as the law is concerned: You can defend yourself as long as you’re
scared of great bodily injury—and that’s not such a high standard. Great
bodily injury could be pretty much anything. - See more at:
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/self-defense-and-the-law#sthash.pAlfp1Sf.dpuf
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