Posted on 09/17/2021 6:04:43 AM PDT by marktwain
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On July, 1st, 2021, the Supreme Court of Estonia resolved a case that has been moving through the courts for almost two years.
On August, 1st, 2018, a road worker in Estonia used his legally owned and permitted pistol to defend himself against a drunken attacker.
The first court sentenced him to six years in prison.
The circuit court (appeals court) reduced the sentence to a conditional prison sentence of 18 months with two years of probation.
The facts of the case were not in dispute.
The road worker with the pistol and permit was Dmitri Doroškevitš. His attacker was a drunken resident of a nearby apartment, who punched him, broke his headset, retreated, ignored a warning shot, and attacked Dmitri again.
The Criminal Law Chamber of the Supreme Court of Estonia heard the case and reversed the decisions of the lower courts. From news.err.ee:
According to the Supreme Court, the courts did not take sufficient account of the course of events in this case. It was a continued attack by the victim. He did not give up the attack even after the warning shot was fired, but instead insulted, threatened and provoked the accused and waited for just the right moment to attack him again, which he finally did. The victim continued the attack, even though he knew that Doroškevitš had a firearm.
The Chamber noted that the victim suddenly started running towards Doroshevich, his hands in a fist, and the distance between them was very small at the time of the shooting – only about five meters. This means that the accused had to react to the attack in just a few seconds. Therefore, he did not have the time or opportunity to think about exactly how to defend himself with a weapon.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
A similar decision in the US Supreme Court in 1921.
Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.
Here in Texas we’d give him a medal for bravery!
Amen!
“Reasonable” gives a jury some room.
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