This Case of the Week is not so much a case of self-defense law as it is a case of mischaracterization of self-defense law. As sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, the media will continue to mischaracterize “Stand-Your-Ground” in terms of both actual application...
The Orlando Sentinel newspaper reports today that Attorney Mark O’Mara has joined the legal team for Michael Dunn, the Florida man who recently shot and killed apparent shoplifter Cristobal Lopez. Dunn has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing.
Michael Dunn, a City Commissioner of Lakeland FL who on October 3 shot and killed a shoplifter in his store, has been indicted and charged with second-degree murder. He was arrested at his attorney’s office yesterday evening and is being held without bail, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
On October 3, 2018, Michael Dunn—a City Commissioner for the city of Lakeland, FL—shot and killed Cristobal Lopez as Lopez shoplifted a hatchet from Dunn’s store, reports TheLedger, a local paper.
The shooting occurred as Dunn was attempting to stop Lopez from leaving the store with the hatchet. The store’s security recording...
The Baltimore police officers who are suing State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for maliciously investigating and defaming them when she criminally charging them over the death of Freddie Gray while he was in police custody have appealed the 4th Circuit’s dismissal of their case to the US Supreme Court, according to the...
Not that it ought to be any surprise to anybody who looked at the evidence, but Chicago Police Department officer Jason Van Dyke has just been found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
There was a hypothetical narrative under which Officer Van Dyke’s narrative...
This week’s case comes out of California’s Court of Appeal, in a decision filed just last Monday (People v. Gregory). It involves two particularly interesting facets of self-defense law: a speculative threat, and provocation with intent. This week we’ll address the speculative threat, and we’ll address provocation with intent...
This “Case of the Week” involves a shooting death in Oconee County, GA one that on the surface has the trappings of self-defense. The purported defender promptly shredded those trappings from the first moment he spoke...
A prosecutor in Colorado Springs is going to once again test the legal boundaries of Colorado’s “make-my-day” statute, which came into law in 1986.
The “Make My Day” law, properly §18-1-704.5. Use of deadly physical force against an intruder, has several substantive sections: one relaxes the proportionality requirement when dealing with a...
This case of the week, Williams v. State, is out of the Georgia Supreme Court, in a decision handed down just last week, and involves a man whose claimed “warning shot” earned him life in prison, even though the bullet he fired wasn’t proven to have harmed anyone.
Stoplight Confrontation Between...
Around 2:30 AM last Tuesday, a man attacked an Uber driver, saying he had a pistol while raising his cell phone in his right hand. He abruptly discovered that the Uber driver was willing and able to defend himself from a deadly force attack with a lawfully carried handgun.
Now the Uber...
This week’s case is not so much a case as it is a cautionary tale about the risks of relying upon the purported use-of-force law expertise of others based solely on their job title, and dangers of not you yourself being educated on that law.
I warn students in every class that...
This week’s Case of the Week is inspired by the so-called “documentary,” Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, produced by Jay Z and Trayvon Martin’s parents.
The first two episodes focus enormous attention on the fact that George Zimmerman was not arrested until April 11, 2012, 44 days after he shot...
Michael Drejka, the 47-year old shooter of 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton over a July 19 dispute about a handicap parking spot, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, reports the Tampa Bay Times and other news sources. He is being held on $100,000 bail in Pinellas County Jail.
[AFB: Update, just reading the...
With the “documentary” Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story by Jay Z in the news, I though it worthwhile to make this Case of the Week about the lies created by doctoring the audio file of the call George Zimmerman made to the police moments before he was viciously attacked...
The Minneapolis police released videos of the shooting of Thurman Blevins, 31, after people insisted the man didn’t have a gun in his hands.
The video shows the police chasing Blevins with what looks like a gun in his hand.
When I tell you that you must assume that everything the news media has to say about self-defense law and events is 100% wrong until proven otherwise, this is why: CNN: “What you need to know about ‘stand your ground’ laws”.
The errors on “Stand-Your-Ground” in particular and self-defense law in general, whether...
