Oklahoma House panel passes armed robbery self-defense bill

newsok.com ^ | 22 February, 2011 | MICHAEL MCNUT

[marktwain]

A second bill filed over publicity of an Oklahoma City pharmacist being charged with murder after he shot a masked robber was approved Monday by a House panel. Advertisement

House Bill 2088 would consider it self-defense if someone, in fear of one's own life or in the defense of others, killed another during an armed robbery.

The bill's author, Rep. Randy Terrill, said the measure will be expanded to cover those who kill someone while defending themselves or others from murder and rape.

The House Judiciary Committee approved HB 2088 by a vote of 15-2. It now goes to the full House.

The same committee last week approved HB 1439, which is patterned after Oklahoma's Make My Day Law; it allows a homeowner to use deadly force against someone who has unlawfully and forcibly entered the dwelling. The law presumes the homeowner has a reasonable fear of being harmed.

HB 2088 originally was named the “Jerome Ersland Act” for pharmacist Jerome Jay Ersland, who is charged with first-degree murder and accused of shooting a robber six times inside the Reliable Discount Pharmacy. Ersland is free on bail awaiting trial.

Terrill changed the bill's named to the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act of 2011 so self-defense could be claimed by those who were defending themselves or others in other violent situations, such as murder and rape. “We're looking at some others that might fall into that category,” said Terrill, R-Moore.

It's now in the discretion of a judge to give a self-defense instruction to a jury, Terrill said. A defendant could claim self-defense, but a judge could refuse to give that instruction.

HB 2088 would require the judge to give a self-defense instruction, he said.

It also switches the burden of proof from the defendant to prosecutors, who would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the slaying was not an act of self-defense or in the defense of others, Terrill said.

[marktwain]

The pedulum is swinging back to restore our right to defense of self and property.

[DCBryan1]

This was the OKC pharmacist that was hung out to dry by the anti-gunners, liberals, and the entitlement crowd. A white store owner was robbed by 2 black kids. He shot at the one with the gun with a Taurus Judge and incapacitated another....he chased the armed robber out of the store, came back, and switched/retreived his Kel-Tec P32 or P3AT and came back and shot the wounded perp until he was dead.

FR had a VERY long thread on this with alot of speculation, yet there was NO video of what the wounded perp was doing, and whether he was executed, or shot in self defense.

I hope the Pharmacist gets acquitted. As for the dead perp: You play stupid games, and you win stupid prizes.

[Oldpuppymax]

Actual Americans are no longer buying the “poor unfortunate victim of society” crap the left has been spouting about criminals for decades.

[MizSterious]

And the pharmacist has a VERY bad lawyer who has done everything he can to irritate both the judge and any possible jury members. The dead robber, alas, also has many supporters here on FR, which saddens me a lot. In my book, if you try to commit armed robbery, you’ve given up your right to breathe air. The pharmacist should be exonerated.

BTW, in the pharmacist’s defense, bodies twitch for a time after death, and he said he believed the kid was alive and reaching for a weapon. Reason enough, in my book, to keep shooting until he’s still.