Does that mean we should all stop posting on Free Republic?
“I was in fear for my life.”
What???
“I was in fear for my life.”
Talk of this kind is asinine, and would complicate such a case in any event. Nobody should be hoping to kill anybody, short of an out and out declaration of war (or a judicial punishment by due process of law). Talk of this kind has sometimes gotten pretty loose on Free Republic, by the way.
Once again sovereign immunity is the root cause of so much police and judicial overreach. If the government was held liable for malicious searches, seizures and prosecutions the country would be a better place.
Long ago, police learned that the same situation can be truthfully testified to in court in two ways. But one of the ways can open the door to unreasonable cross examination casting doubt on your testimony, and the other does not, as long as you do not let your words be twisted by the attorney.
So the police developed a stylized way of testifying, to express the facts, but in such a way that their testimony was unimpeachable.
Similar rules apply to ordinary citizens, but most do not realize it, so their honest testimony is corrupted by the attorney during cross examination, even falsely implicating them in a crime.
This especially applies to the defensive use of guns.
If you are defending yourself against an attacker or home invader, of course you are afraid. It is your dominant, instinctual reaction. So in testimony you can very accurately and reasonably say that you were in fear for your life.
However, in cross examination, attorneys will try to get you to rephrase the truth, parse the truth, admit to any other state of mind, or some other trick to get you to testify differently from the basic truth, that you were in fear for your life.
This is why you must not waver from telling the truth. If they push too hard trying to force you to waver from the truth, you can even directly appeal to the judge, assuming that your attorney is just sitting there like a bump on a log.
“Your honor, my state of mind was that I was in fear for my life. That is my testimony.” This legally means that the question was “asked and answered”, so re-asking the same question is in effect badgering.