good luck thinking you know state law then.... next time a guy pushes you in a bar and takes a swing and you stab him in the heart, let me know where to send the cigarettes you will need in prison to not get raped. If someone is punching you in a bar fight, you dont automatically get to pull out a gun and shoot them. Go read your state laws and read some cases on bar fights ended up with guys in prison. Even if you punch back in self defense and knock the guys head into the bar corner and crack his head and he dies, you coudl be arrested. Virginia: Generally the rule is that a person may only use the “necessary” amount of force to protect themselves. So, for instance, if the threat to you falls into the “bodily harm” category but your reaction is “deadly force,” this is not justified, even if you are acting in self-defense. Washington Deadly force may only be used in self-defense if the defendant reasonably believes he or she is threatened with death or great personal injury. State v. Walden, 131 Wn.2d 469 (1997). A person cannot use deadly force in self-defense unless he has a reasonable and good-faith belief that, from an objective standpoint, deadly force was necessary. State v. Bell, 60 Wn.App,. 561 (1993). N.C. Deadly force may only be used if you reasonably believe that action is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm or in lawful defense of another. If someone is vandalizing your car, you cannot shoot them with a gun. If a 100 pound boy tries to punch a 200 pound man, the larger man cannot stab the boy with a knife. It may be a different story if the 200 pound man tries to attack the 100 pound boy.
Virginia's self defense laws provide that a non-aggressor is justified in using force against another person if (1) he reasonably believes (2) that the force is necessary (3) to protect himself from imminent use of unlawful force by the other person.1 Although not codified by statute, Virginia case law supports a version of the castle doctrine, providing that under certain circumstances, a person may use deadly force against someone entering his home.2 Virginia also has a "no retreat" or more commonly know as a "stand your ground" law, which means you are not required to "retreat", in other words try to escape, prior to using self defense, under certain circumstances.3 Self defense can provide a legal basis as a defense in cases, in part, involving: Murder Assault and Battery Malicious Wounding Unlawful Wounding
Castle doctrine is not the issue here as we are not discussing protecting your home. ALmost every state allows deadly force to protect your home so not an issue. You claimed that in a bar fight you can kill the guy punching you. You also did not cite the whole law:. WIth all due respect try to include as much as possible. A person may only use deadly force if there was a present danger of great bodily injury. Words alone are not sufficient to justify the use of deadly force.13 For instance if you were defending yourself from someone trying to commit: A murder A malicious wounding Or a rape In Virginia, a person is only allowed to use the amount of force necessary to repel the force used against him.14 This rule requires that the force used must be proportional to the harm threatened. Excessive force is not protected. Therefore, when threatened with a non-deadly attack, a person is not justified in using deadly force to repel the attack.
Continuing with the thread title here, another question Tree / Ocho. OK this one is REALLY hypothetical, but just for discussion sake. Didn't one of the gun manufactures get sued pretty bad because they said their ads inspired kids to buy assault rifles? Or something like that? Anyway, and again, this is like pure theoretical discussion stuff, but I have been seeing advertisements for Dodge Challengers, or whatever that souped up model they make is, and albeit there is fine print that no one can read saying "professional driver on closed course" etc.... these ads really sensationalize driving like a madman. What makes me bring this up, 2 incidents. On Sunday I was on the interstate and witnessed a chase. Cop had his radar out, I saw him as passed, and then the next thing I know this Charger goes screaming by me. I'm like, ok, this should be good. Here comes the cop. This f'ing charger had to be doing 130 and he was running. Good looking car. The cop, well you know thats what they live for... a good chase. Dude in the Charger does a 4 way lane change and screams up an off-ramp. Cop followed. I'm not big enough rubber-necker to get off and see what happened, but I assume the cop got him eventually. The second incident was yesterday, last night. I saw a huge wreck being cleaned up. It was ugly. I would be not surprised if there was a fatality in the one car. The other car... you guessed it. A brand new Charger. My question... if people can sue the gun folks for ads that allegedly inspire undesirable actions, could the family of that (perhaps) fatality, if they had a sh*t-hot lawyer... could they sue Chrysler? And actually have a chance at a win? I mean watch one of those ads. They're all about road rage type driving. It implies a mindset in a way, like all good advertising does. Just thought it an interesting question. I see our bodega guy got off. Thats good.
Ok, suit yourself. I listened to it in the background. Like I said it covered it all including the actual agreement. Of course clicked ahead every time ads came up.
Hey tree or ocho, Another quick question. In a trial, (the actual trial phase, not the jury selection) are the lawyers allowed to query the members of the jury about something. Even something mundane? For example, say I'm the defense attorney out there doing my thing and as a great lawyer I have a plan for where I'm going with this, but I look over at the jury box and say: "Mr Smith (he's juror #5)... do you by any chance know the final score of the Knicks game last night?" Is that allowed? Asking a juror a question?