Podcasts

Today’s Post of the Day is prompted by a first-degree murder trial out of Kalispell MT that ended up with a hung jury last week according to local news reports. This case raises some interesting technical issues around how a claim of self-defense impacts the appropriateness of a criminal charge based on negligence. (Yesterday’s Post […]

Today’s Post of the Day is prompted by a first-degree murder trial out of Kalispell MT that ended up with a hung jury last week according to local news reports. This case raises some interesting technical issues around an intentional act of self-defense versus an unintentional act of negligence as well as practical issues around

Today’s Post of the Day is prompted by a news report on a self-defense/murder trial out of Pennsylvania that’s expected to arrive at a verdict within the next few days. [UPDATE 6/17/19: The defendant was, in fact, found guilty of first-degree murder shortly after this post was written.] The defendant is, naturally, claiming self-defense, and

Today’s Post of the Day is prompted by the news report of a murder conviction out of Tennessee this week, in a case that touches on the issue of “soft” v. “hard” stand-your-ground. (Yesterday’s Post of the Day also discussed this case, in the context of the self-defense elements of proportionality and innocence.) The defendant

Today’s Post of the Day is prompted by the news report of a murder conviction out of Tennessee this week, in a case that involved the self-defense elements of innocence, proportionality, and a tree branch used as a deadly weapon. (It also touches on the issue of “soft” versus “hard” stand-your-ground, but we’ll cover that

Today’s Post of the Day is prompted by a news story about a man attempting to abduct a 9-year-old boy from a Walmart. The boy escaped to his mom, and the police arrived promptly made the arrest., but this raises the question of what degree of force the mother herself would have been privileged to

Today’s Post of the Day focuses on the recently failed attempt by Maine to adopt a “stand-your-ground” law, meaning Maine remains one of the small minority of states that imposes a legal duty to retreat even when facing an imminent, unlawful, unprovoked lethal attack. Good job, Maine. What’s most surprising about this story, however, is

Today’s Post of the Day focuses on reports that “handicap parking spot shooter” Michael Drejka is declining to pursue self-defense immunity under Florida law. That raises the question of how self-defense immunity actually works (and doesn’t work) and why Drejka might choose to decline this generous opportunity under Florida law to have his case resolved

Today’s Post of the Day examines a Utah Supreme Court decision, State v. Bess, 2019 UT 22 (UT Sup. Ct. 2019), handed down earlier this week that affirms the misdemeanor conviction of a police officer for the crime of threatening with a dangerous weapon. But wait—don’t police routinely have to threaten people with dangerous weapons

Today’s Post of the Day takes a look at the recent appeals of ex-cop Michael Slager, currently serving 20 years for the shooting death of Walter Scott in South Carolina in 2015. This was a high-profile case because Slager, white, shot Scott, black, in the back as Scott was fleeing. (Video of the shooting is