08.08.06
Shoot First, Claim Self-Defense Later
The common law doctrine of self-defense is pretty straightforward - if you believe that you are in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm, you can use deadly force to protect yourself (or someone else who is in such imminent danger). But you cannot ever use deadly force to protect property. Simple, right? Not so much anymore. In the past year, fifteen states have expanded the right to use deadly force in self-defense, so that an imminent threat is no longer required if someone enters a home or vehicle unlawfully. This may, theoretically, not change much - under the old laws, if someone intruded into your home, it’s not a stretch to say that you were fearing for your safety rather than protecting your valuables. The new laws essentially make it OK to outright kill someone in order to protect property. And the New York Times highlights a few head-scratching stories that once would have resulted in murder or attempted murder prosecutions and likely convictions…but under the new laws, are not considered crimes at all.
The case involving the Port Richey prostitute, Jacqueline Galas, turned on the new law, said Michael Halkitis, division director of the state attorney’s office in nearby New Port Richey. Ms. Galas, 23, said that a longtime client, Frank Labiento, 72, threatened to kill her and then kill himself last month. A suicide note he had left and other evidence supported her contention.
The law came into play when Ms. Galas grabbed Mr. Labiento’s gun and chose not to flee but to kill him. “Before that law,” Mr. Halkitis said, “before you could use deadly force, you had to retreat. Under the new law, you don’t have to do that.”
The decision not to charge Ms. Galas was straightforward, Mr. Halkitis said. “It would have been a more difficult situation with the old law,” he said, “much more difficult.”
In the case of the West Palm Beach cabdriver, Mr. Smiley, then 56, killed Jimmie Morningstar, 43. A sports bar had paid Mr. Smiley $10 to drive Mr. Morningstar home in the early morning of Nov. 6, 2004.
Mr. Morningstar was apparently reluctant to leave the cab once it reached its destination, and Mr. Smiley used a stun gun to hasten his exit. Once outside the cab, Mr. Morningstar flashed a knife, Mr. Smiley testified at his first trial, though one was never found. Mr. Smiley, who had gotten out of his cab, reacted by shooting at his passenger’s feet and then into his body, killing him.
Cliff Morningstar, the dead man’s uncle, said he was baffled by the killing. “He had a radio,” Mr. Morningstar said of Mr. Smiley. “He could have gotten in his car and left. He could have shot him in his knee.”
[…]
Jason M. Rosenbloom, the man shot by his neighbor in Clearwater, said his case illustrated the flaws in the Florida law. “Had it been a year and a half ago, he could have been arrested for attempted murder,” Mr. Rosenbloom said of his neighbor, Kenneth Allen.
“I was in T-shirt and shorts,” Mr. Rosenbloom said, recalling the day he knocked on Mr. Allen’s door. Mr. Allen, a retired Virginia police officer, had lodged a complaint with the local authorities, taking Mr. Rosenbloom to task for putting out eight bags of garbage, though local ordinances allow only six.
“I was no threat,” Mr. Rosenbloom said. “I had no weapon.”
The men exchanged heated words. “He closed the door and then opened the door,” Mr. Rosenbloom said of Mr. Allen. “He had a gun. I turned around to put my hands up. He didn’t even say a word, and he fired once into my stomach. I bent over, and he shot me in the chest.”
Mr. Allen, whose phone number is out of service and who could not be reached for comment, told The St. Petersburg Times that Mr. Rosenbloom had had his foot in the door and had tried to rush into the house, an assertion Mr. Rosenbloom denied.
“I have a right,” Mr. Allen said, “to keep my house safe.”
To supporters of these new laws - such as the NRA - they are known as “stand your ground” laws; to detractors, they are “shoot first” laws.
I had a discussion with a random fellow in a New York City bar a couple of months ago about these very issues. He was from Texas and claimed that one of the big differences between there and places like NYC was that kids in the South grow up with guns. They learn to shoot, hunt, and be responsible with guns. Guns are just part of life. But that just isn’t the case in the Northeast, which is why, he claimed, he supported much stricter gun laws as a resident of New York than he did when he was a resident of Texas. He also insisted that people in the South wouldn’t be able to comprehend a home intruder that doesn’t necessarily pose a threat to safety - an intruder is an intruder and you shoot to protect not only your family, but also your property. Period, the end. It’s quite possible that these situations that the new laws explicitly condone were already being condoned by DAs simply declining to prosecute. But a fight about garbage bags on the front porch ending in gunfire? That seems to show that the trigger-happy may be getting a lot more leeway than even tradition quietly condoned.
