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Law of Self Defense Tag

Prof. John Banzoff sees a strong legal defense: "in the face of such clear threats to kill others, Penny is entitled under New York State's § 35.15 to use even deadly force because, in the words of the statute, "the actor reasonably believes that such...

In what appears to be yet another politically-motivated prosecution of a white police officer who lawfully defended himself from a violent, non-compliant black suspect, Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr has been charged with second-degree murder over the April 4, 2022 shooting death of Patrick Lyoya, according to FOX News. I previously wrote about this case right here at Legal Insurrection back in April:

Reminder: Fighting a Cop for Control of Taser Will Likely Get You Lawfully Shot

Reminder: Fighting a Cop for Control of Taser Will Likely Get You Lawfully Shot On April 4, 2022, Patrick Lyoya was shot and killed by a Grand Rapids police officer after violently fighting lawful arrest following an attempt to flee a traffic stop, and after refusing to give up control of the Taser Lyoya had seized from the officer during their struggle. Essentially the entirety of the physical confrontation between Lyoya and the officer was captured on video, in various forms—the officer’s body camera until that was disabled in the struggle, the officer’s dash camera video from his patrol vehicle, and a bystander’s smartphone video.  These videos were yesterday released by the Grand Rapids Police Department, along with extensive commentary, during an hour-long press conference.  You can watch that press conference in its entirety here:

On November 5, 2021, Kyle Carruth fatally shot Chad Read in the chest in a child custody-associated dispute taking place outside Carruth's Texas home. On March 31, 2022, news media announced that a special grand jury convened in this case returned a "no true bill," meaning they declined to indict Carruth on any criminal charges for his having killed Read. Accordingly, it appears that Carruth will face no criminal liability over this event (although he continues to sued civilly over his killing of Read).

We've seen this happen in the George Zimmerman trial in Florida a decade ago, in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial just completed in Kenosha WI, and in plenty of cases in between. These are cases where there is little or no evidence inconsistent with self-defense, such that there can be no good-faith reason for a prosecutor to drag that defender to trial.  The only motivation of the prosecutor is personal aggrandizement and political capital.

Welcome to today’s Law of Self Defense content! I am, of course, Attorney Andrew Branca, for Law of Self Defense LLC. Today I’d like to share with some updated legal analysis of the Alec Baldwin on-set shooting of Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old mother and the director of cinematography for Baldwin’s in-production Western movie “Rust.” Ms. Hutchins, tragically, died as a result.  (Also injured by the shot was director Joel Souza, who survived.) Spoiler:  The more we learn about the facts of this case, within the context of New Mexico criminal law, the more this shooting looks increasingly like a crime—specifically, felony involuntary manslaughter.  So, today let’s explore that possibility in further detail.

Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who is charged with murder in a shooting during Kenosha, Wisconsin, riots, has been freed on $2 million bail.

Michael Drejka, the Florida man who shot and killed Markeis McGlockton after being physically attacked by McGlockton in a dispute over a handicap parking spot, was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison. He was convicted in August of manslaughter.