Thursday, July 24, 2014

Detroit Homeowner's Trial focuses on the use of Deadly Force in Self-Defense

No one disputes that homeowner Theodore Wafer shot to death 19-year-old Renisha McBride before dawn last November.
"Ah yes, I just shot somebody on my front porch, with a shotgun, banging on my door," Mr. Wafer told a 911 operator just before 5 a.m. on Nov. 2 and then hung up.
But in a murder trial scheduled to start in Wayne County Circuit Court on Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys are set to battle over a larger question that has gripped the Detroit area, as well as other urban regions with high crime and limited police services: When is it legally appropriate to use deadly force to protect yourself in your own home?
Under Michigan law, there is no duty to retreat in your own home, experts say. Prosecutors in the case argue that someone who claims self-defense must honestly and reasonably believe that he is in imminent danger of either losing his life or suffering great bodily harm, and that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent that harm.
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Attorneys for Mr. Wafer, 55, plan to argue that he thought Ms. McBride was breaking into his house. They say he was in fear for his life and justified in his actions, even if the danger turned out not to be as great as he imagined. Witnesses say Ms. McBride was disoriented and bleeding after a car accident hours before the shooting. Authorities have said they believe she arrived alone and unarmed on Mr. Wafer's porch.
"This case is really about: Does a person have to be inside your house to use lawful self-defense?" said Cheryl Carpenter, a defense attorney for Mr. Wafer, who has been charged with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty. "No one will ever know for sure what Renisha's intentions were on that porch."
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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