Quote:
Originally Posted by baddog
GZ does not have to prove anything to you; he is presumed to be innocent unless the state has convinced you beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it and that he was not in fear of his life at any point in the confrontation.
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well then i would have to vote to acquit even though i have serious reservations about his credibility pertaining to his version of the events. and since self defense is also a defense for manslaughter i couldn't vote to convict him of manslaughter either - even though I'd probably like to do that.
'fear for his life' - hypothetically what would happen in an altercation where one person by nature is a person very easy to frighten, people are all different, there are people who won't fly in an airplane, people who don't drive on highways, even though statistics tell us it's very safe to do both those things many people exaggerate the danger for themselves - so one of these types of persons is out walking his dog one night, he has a license to carry a gun, there's a stranger in the neighborhood walking towards him on the other side of the street, the dog walker nervously keeps walking with the stranger coming closer, as the stranger gets very close he crosses the street and moves towards the nervous dog walker - the nervous dog walked is scared shitless, pulls out his gun and shoots the stranger.
the police investigate, what the police find out is that the stranger was a friend of one of the neighbors who was on the street that night to visit the neighbor, all the houses on the street look alike, the way townhouses do often and the man who was shot was probably going to ask the dog walker if he knew which home was the friends of his because he had forgotten the house number.
the dog walker gets charged with manslaughter - his defense is self defense, he genuinely feared his life was in danger. so he is not guilty of manslaughter even though the vast majority of people in the same situation would not feel like their life was in danger?