Castle Doctrine goes before Ohio Legislature

[svillekahuna]

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Politics/Detail?contentId=5632973&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.14.1

OH--IO!!!!

[TAB]

Actually sounds like a good thing... 

Ohio law protects the right of self defense and would allow you to shoot an intruder in your home, but only if you were in fear of injury or death and it would be your burden to prove the threat in court.

That one word makes all the diffrence... what ever happend to innoccent until proven guilty?

Sounds like a bad law to me.  Thats one thing I will give CA, the SD laws are pretty good, its just all the other laws that need ALOT of work.

[ccd]

   If it is YOUR burden to prove it was SD, sounds like you would need to put up a CCTV system in/around your house. Especially if you get an overzealous prosecutor. Good Luck, I thank God every day that I live in Texas.

[Long Armed Devil]

In Az you have a pretty good deal on castle...no duty to retreat from home or car or anywhere you have a legal right to be, as long as  you had a fear for your life or that of your child ,or any child's life,  was in danger.  Also as I understand it you can use deadly force or threat of deadly force  to come to the aid of a stranger if their life is in jepordy.  If you did take action in the above situations, you are assumed to be acting as a reasonable person.   This is for Az. your state may be different.

However, that being said, you may have to convince a JURY of your "PEERS" that you did feel that either you or someone else was going to be killed or maimed if you did not act.

Also if someone comes after you in civil Court AND you win, the other party is responsible for any and all legal costs. 

So what that means is, you still have to hire an attorney to defend you, and at the end of the day, if you win, the judge "should" order that the party that sued you owes YOU the $ you spent to defend yourself...Good luck on collecting.

As a former Probation Officer I spent a lot of time in and around the Courts.  Each month I averaged around 20 - 30 separate court hearings.  Many of those times you are on the stand with the Public Defender trying to trip you up or make it seem that you were in the wrong.  Sometimes the County Attorney, who is supposed to be on your "team", so to speak, will not agree with your position and come after you.  Neither side has any hesitation about comming after you if it suits their needs. 

The Court is nothing like it is on TV nor how the media presents it.  It boils down to what is LEGAL,  not what is fair, or just.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a rather long winded way, is that just because your state has the castle doctrine does not mean that you are 100% protected, even if you did everything right.

I don't feel  we as a community have enough discussions of what can happen after the fact. 

Michael said that he will contact an attorney to explain the laws and realities of self defense when he moved to a new state.  I think this is a really good idea.  Also if the prices are a little steep, $400.00 per hour, getting  together as a group and  splitting the cost could be an option. 

One last thing, I don't want anyone to feel that I am saying not to defend yourself or your family.  For me, I will defend myself and family 100%, as I am sure  those of you who are reading this will.

Thanks for putting up with my rant.

Stay safe and informed. 

[Swamp Yankee]

Hopefully they do not table it like the LIMP DICKS!!! here in PA did.

Mike Mc

[Sponsor]