And YOU don't understand that people are saying it is not about the case...and about the case if as reported...if as reported as true. GET IT? Do you GET the hypothetical arguement aspect of it that IF there is no announce and IF someone busts in and IF a cop gets shot that the shooter is NOT a murder?
So...maybe that is a better way to define you...rather than the aspects of this case...because all you have to do is go WAY back and see that I said early on IF AS REPORTED (Which you can't seem to grasp).
Answer this: IF a man is asleep in his house...a cops bust in UNANNOUNCED on a warrent for drugs (that end up not being there)...and the man has a child sleeping in his house...and in his slumber and in the confusion and because of no announcing...HE GRABS A GUN AND KILLS A COP...
Now here is your question Mojave...
?????? Should he go to jail for murder? Yes or No given the above circumstances?
HYPOTHETICALLY?
I have been awakened from a sound sleep by alarming circumstances a number of times in my life.
One incident stands out in my mind- not for what it turned out to be (it was laughably non-hazardous)- but for my reaction to it.
I had a house in California, and I lived alone. My bedroom was far from any reasonable point of entry to the house. I was awakened extremely abruptly by a LOUD shreiking noise. Imagine two women who *really* hate one another going at it suddenly, with no warning in full voice. At the foot of my bed- in the same room with me. It's quite dark in there- only dim ambient light.
I woke up. I was already on my feet when I woke up- in a Weaver stance, with the bedside pistol in my hands and I was tracking for a target when my eyes opened. That, by itself, is startling to me.
The aftermath: I had two cats at the time. One of them was a big, burly tom. There was a third cat in the room- who had broken through a screened window and entered the house. A big cauliflowered ears neighborhood cat-brawling tomcat. My tomcat was defending the household- so there was a full-on catfight going on in my room- out of nowhere. At about two in the morning.
I looked at the pistol and thought "What am I going to do with this? I can't shoot the little monster- the cops will be all over the house in about five minutes if I do- and I'll go to the clink." I safed the weapon and put it down. I then realized that I had absolutely no canned plan for repelling enemy cats. So I stood there for a moment thinking about how to break this up.
I finally threw a heavy jacket at the furry invader- who broke and ran. I raced after him- turning on lights as I went. I followed him to the point of entry and he made his escape. I closed off the window with the damaged screen. Then I opened up a can of tuna for my cat- and praised him endlessly for being such a good guard cat. Scared the hell out of me- I was up for the rest of the night.
The bottom line and the point here is: what if it had been the cops in the wrong house, instead of the comical situation that it actually was? My hearing is damaged, and I am just waking up. "Police! Police!" might very well have not even registered in my mind, had it been shouted. Part of my brain knew only "DANGER-INVADER-REACT NOW!"
Jury didn't buy that tale.