I.E., If I claimed I killed a man by reason of Self-Defense and the Police Investigation find my claim is not justified: what will I usually be Charged with if there is any Charge that could be said to be "Usual".
I should give an example: I almost have a horrible car accident and by luck the accident is avoided but I'm very shaky and jumpy. I resume my drive to a friend's party. It's after dark. I park on the only spot available near his house,
5 min walk. While walking I see another man approaching from the opposite direction. He's walking faster than usual. As he nears he puts his hand in his pocket and begins to draw something out. I think I see the butt of a gun and draw and shoot him. He begins to stagger and fall, but convinced he still may attack I shoot 5 more times, hitting him each time in the torso. He's dead.
Police arrive and find a cell-phone, not a gun, in the pocket he reached into. It's large and square and looks nothing like a gun. Neighbors who witnessed this are the ones who called 911. I didn't. They called to report a murder. They saw nothing the man was doing except walking by. They said they often saw him walking. His family says he walked partly for exercise and a bit uptempo but not fast.Neighbors agree it wasn't a fast walk.
Autopsy shows my first shot went into a major artery and he was incapable of continuing the attack. When asked about the first shot I agree he stopped and began to fall and his bare hand came out of his pocket.
So, the Police find the killing not justified by SD. Or even close to it.
What am I charged with? Murder, Criminally Negligent Homicide? I think the latter though is death by negligence that was not intended but happened out of one's negligent actions. This death I intended or at least intended to stop him even if it meant he died in the process. I therefore intended to stop him by any means possible including killing him.
What do you think would be the usual Charge? If there is one.
I should give an example: I almost have a horrible car accident and by luck the accident is avoided but I'm very shaky and jumpy. I resume my drive to a friend's party. It's after dark. I park on the only spot available near his house,
5 min walk. While walking I see another man approaching from the opposite direction. He's walking faster than usual. As he nears he puts his hand in his pocket and begins to draw something out. I think I see the butt of a gun and draw and shoot him. He begins to stagger and fall, but convinced he still may attack I shoot 5 more times, hitting him each time in the torso. He's dead.
Police arrive and find a cell-phone, not a gun, in the pocket he reached into. It's large and square and looks nothing like a gun. Neighbors who witnessed this are the ones who called 911. I didn't. They called to report a murder. They saw nothing the man was doing except walking by. They said they often saw him walking. His family says he walked partly for exercise and a bit uptempo but not fast.Neighbors agree it wasn't a fast walk.
Autopsy shows my first shot went into a major artery and he was incapable of continuing the attack. When asked about the first shot I agree he stopped and began to fall and his bare hand came out of his pocket.
So, the Police find the killing not justified by SD. Or even close to it.
What am I charged with? Murder, Criminally Negligent Homicide? I think the latter though is death by negligence that was not intended but happened out of one's negligent actions. This death I intended or at least intended to stop him even if it meant he died in the process. I therefore intended to stop him by any means possible including killing him.
What do you think would be the usual Charge? If there is one.
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