Hat tip to Joan Peterson for this story on a guy who shot two burglars execution style, and is being charged with murder. It is not often I agree with Joan, but I do agree that the homeowner’s behavior here was criminal and reprehensible. But I do want to explain the law here, especially as it relates to Castle Doctrine, so that we may dispel some common myths. First, from the story:
Brady fell down the stairs and was looking up at Smith when the homeowner shot him in the face.
“I want him dead,” Smith explained to the investigator for the additional shot.
Smith put Brady’s body on a tarp and dragged him to an office workshop.
A few minutes later, Smith heard footsteps above him. As in Brady’s case, Kifer too started down the stairs and was shot by Smith by the time he saw her hips, sending her tumbling down the stairs.
Smith attempted to shoot her again, but his rifle jammed, prompting Kifer to laugh.
Upset, Smith, pulled out a revolver he had on him and shot her “more times than I needed to” in the chest, he said.
Smith dragged Kifer next to Brady as she gasped for her life. He pressed the revolver’s barrel under her chin and pulled the trigger in what he described as a “good, clean finishing shot” that was meant to end her suffering.
Smith acknowledged leaving the bodies in his home overnight before calling a neighbor to ask about a lawyer and to request that authorities be notified.
In nearly all 50 states, including Minnesota, the mere use of deadly force in the circumstance of someone feloniously entering your home is, generally speaking, legitimate self-defense. In many states, forced entry into an occupied dwelling is considered prima facie evidence that a deadly threat exists. Minnesota, following traditional common law, allows for deadly force to be used to prevent the commission of a felony, though in MN limited to one’s place of abode, and burglary is a felony in Minnesota. Minnesota law states:
609.065 JUSTIFIABLE TAKING OF LIFE.
The intentional taking of the life of another is not authorized by section 609.06, except when necessary in resisting or preventing an offense which the actor reasonably believes exposes the actor or another to great bodily harm or death, or preventing the commission of a felony in the actor’s place of abode.
Regardless of whether castle doctrine has passed in Minnesota or not, there is already an absolute unqualified right (qualified by a duty to retreat in some circumstances in the home imposed by judicial fiat) to respond to burglars invading an occupied home in Minnesota with deadly force, but only if the purpose of such force is to prevent the continuing felony, or to protect life and limb. Murder is never lawful, and Minnesota, like most states, defines (in this case 2nd degree) murder as when someone “causes the death of a human being with intent to effect the death of that person or another, but without premeditation,” (emphasis mine). As soon as you say something like this to the police:
“I want him dead,” Smith explained to the investigator for the additional shot.
[…]
Upset, Smith, pulled out a revolver he had on him and shot her “more times than I needed to” in the chest, he said.
Smith dragged Kifer next to Brady as she gasped for her life. He pressed the revolver’s barrel under her chin and pulled the trigger in what he described as a “good, clean finishing shot” that was meant to end her suffering.
That’s the intentional infliction of death, which is murder. The intent in self-defense is never to inflict death, but to stop the attack, or in the case of Minnesota law, to prevent to commission of a felony. Once they are down, they are no longer a threat and no longer committing a felony. To take a “finishing shot,” becomes murder. This is regardless of the Castle Doctrine law.
I say this because our opponents characterization of this law as “shoot first,” and “license to kill,” creates the very real danger, when combined with an ignorant and unquestioning media willing to repeat their rhetoric, that some fool or whack job may actually believe it. This man confessed his crime willingly to the police. Why would he do that if he did not believe he was in the right? Let us not continue to peddle the myths about deadly force laws. Murder is always illegal.
