Saturday, December 8, 2007

Maybe Not the Strongest Self-Defense Case

It's audio-video day here at Defending People. Here's a 9-1-1 tape from the City of Pasadena, a suburb of Houston in Harris County:

Note to self: If you have time, before shooting someone in the back, to explain to the police that you understand the recent changes in the law of self-defense, then it probably isn't really self-defense.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't quite place the accent. New Jersey, maybe?

GeorgeH said...

Whatever happened to "Needed Killing"?

Mark Bennett said...

George,

By taking probation power away from the jury, the Lege took "needed killing" out, by and large, of the jury's province, and placed it with the bureaucrats.

All is not lost for this defendant, though. This is Harris County, and while a white guy who premeditatedly shot two black burglars in full view of the cops may not receive a medal publicly from the district attorney, neither is he likely to get indicted for murder.