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'Stand your ground' gun laws, like that of Florida's, adopted in Kentucky, Indiana ...
21 states allow 'stand your ground' use of deadly force in self-defense
12:08 AM, Apr. 8, 2012 |
Written by
Andrew Wolfson
The Courier-Journal
Kentucky law
Use of defensive force regarding dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle
A person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another when using defensive force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another if:
• The person against whom the defensive force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcibly entering or had unlawfully and forcibly entered a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or if that person had removed or was attempting to remove another against that person’s will from the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle; and
• The person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred
The law also says:
• A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a felony involving the use of force.
• People using deadly force in such situations are immune from civil liability.
Indiana law
Use of force to protect person or property
A person is justified in using deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if the person reasonably believes that that force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person or the commission of a forcible felony.
• A person is justified in using reasonable force, including deadly force, against another person and does not have a duty to retreat if the person reasonably believes that the force is necessary to prevent or terminate the other person’s unlawful entry of or attack on the person’s dwelling, property or occupied motor vehicle.
• People using deadly force in such situations are immune from civil liability.
Florida law
A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
After Janice Hasch shot and killed her husband, Jerald, in Bullitt County on April 14, 2008 — in self-defense after years of abuse, she said — a detective asked her a dozen times if she could have fled their house and avoided the need for deadly force.
At her trial, the prosecution also stressed she could have left and she was wrong to believe she had to shoot to defend herself.
Hasch, now 61, was convicted of reckless homicide and sentenced to two years in prison, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 2010 reversed her conviction, citing a state law enacted four years earlier that says there is no “duty to retreat.”
“No retreat” or “stand your ground” laws — enacted during the past few years in 21 states, including Kentucky and Indiana, at the behest of the National Rifle Association — have come under fire recently in the wake of a high-profile case in Sanford, Fla., that left an unarmed teenager dead.
In that case, local authorities cited Florida’s statute when initially saying that crime-watch volunteer George Zimmerman couldn’t be charged with the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman’s lawyer has said his client was acting in self defense. State and federal officials are investigating.
But the case has set off a firestorm among those who argue that gun laws such as those in Florida, Kentucky and Indiana make it too easy for anyone to pull the trigger, then avoid criminal charges by arguing self-defense.
In an interview, Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Stengel called Kentucky’s law “horrible,” saying it gives homeowners and motorists a license to kill, even in defense of property.
Kentucky courts have long held there is no duty to retreat when threatened with serious harm or death.
Kentucky tradition
“It is the tradition that a Kentuckian never runs — he doesn’t have to,” the state’s high court said in 1931, reversing the manslaughter convictions of two men who killed a third in a drunken brawl.
((( But Kentucky and Indiana followed Florida in enacting legislation expanding and codifying the “castle doctrine” — that a man’s home is his castle and he has the right to defend it. )))
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