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How guns save lives
Washington Times ^ | 1/26/03

Posted on 01/25/2003 10:44:57 PM PST by kattracks

Edited on 07/12/2004 4:00:33 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

Thanks to Baltimore Circuit Court Judge John M. Glynn, justice finally prevailed Thursday, as two businessmen were acquitted of first-degree murder charges for killing a weapon-toting hoodlum who broke into their warehouse. Just seconds after defense attorneys finished their closing arguments, Judge Glynn pronounced Darrell Kifer and Kenny Der not guilty in the June 30, 2001, slaying of Tygon Walker, who was holding a hammer and threatening to kill them. Judging from the facts of the case

(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
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To: On the Road to Serfdom
then yes Texas law would probably be different than it is now and spring traps would be legal.

You missed the point -- spring traps would NOT be legal.

121 posted on 01/27/2003 1:12:43 PM PST by WL-law
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To: steve-b
Both of which apply here, inasmuch as Kifer and Der were inside the building when the perp broke in.

And we aren't debating that. You have to go back to the beginning (uhg!) of the thread to see what I was objecting to. It was the assertion that the defense of PROPERTY ALONE should be a correct basis for lethal force -- the facts of the particular case at hand were cast by the wayside.

122 posted on 01/27/2003 1:15:43 PM PST by WL-law
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To: Teacher317
You repeatedly assume that the perp was only after property, making the shooting illegal...

I never assumed that, not once. I responded to a poster who asserted that lethal force in the defense of MERE PROPERTY was warranted. At that point we left the facts of the case at hand and plunged into the world of hypotheticals and statute-parsing.

123 posted on 01/27/2003 1:18:51 PM PST by WL-law
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To: steve-b
Your example is irrelevant, for the same reason that the case of a stinking-blotto drunk driver who manages to make it home without causing an accident is irrelevant. The objection to booby traps is the unreasonable risk to innocent bystanders. This is why the placement of such a trap constitutes an offense even if the police discover it before it has ever gone off.

Baloney. That's not the basis for it at all -- I suggest you take a look at the case law on the subject. It has everything to do with proportionality and the relative value of property versus human life. You are ABSOLUTELY wrong on this point.

124 posted on 01/27/2003 1:21:08 PM PST by WL-law
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To: Shooter 2.5
You're presuming too much. The facts of the investigation were such that the judge took seconds to reach a Not Guilty verdict.

That happens, for many different reasons. Cases are lost on defense counsel's motion to dismiss for failure to prove a key element of the crime --. Same speed and finality -- faulty prosecution case. Doesn't necessarily mean that there was no substance to the charge.

125 posted on 01/27/2003 1:23:56 PM PST by WL-law
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To: WL-law
The prosecuting attorney had to have evidence the two men gunned down the invader with murderous intent because they were innocent until proven guilty BEFORE they went to trial.

So what was this damning evidence the prosecuting attorney had BEFORE they went to trial?

126 posted on 01/27/2003 1:25:33 PM PST by Shooter 2.5
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To: Double Tap
What is your fascination with spring guns?

Well, see the post prior to yours. It lays out the moral arguments.

127 posted on 01/27/2003 1:28:35 PM PST by WL-law
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To: Shooter 2.5
So what was this damning evidence the prosecuting attorney had BEFORE they went to trial?

I certainly don't know, although the facts as stated would certainly raise the curiousity of the prosecutor. Don't know what he found. I have no reason to believe he acted in bad faith.

128 posted on 01/27/2003 2:20:51 PM PST by WL-law
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To: WL-law
For the hundredth time, there was no spring gun used. There is no comparison between what happened in this case and using a spring gun. This whole arguement started over your statement that a person could never use deadly force in defense of property. You have been proven wrong, it is quite legal in Texas.

Your attempt to side track the discussion is only too obvious, and everyone has seen it. Why don't you quit digging deeper and deeper into the hole you have dug for yourself.

129 posted on 01/27/2003 2:27:04 PM PST by Double Tap
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To: WL-law
When a "Not Guilty" verdict is read seconds after the closing arguments, there is reason to believe the prosecutor acted in either bad faith or incompetance.
130 posted on 01/27/2003 2:33:01 PM PST by Shooter 2.5
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To: WL-law
You missed the point -- spring traps would NOT be legal.

It is pointless to speculate what Texas law or other State laws would be, you don't know. I am not missing any point. Your point is that an Iowa case ruled that according to Iowa law people in Iowa can never use lethal force for the sole purpose of defending property. You also claim this applies in all States. Your claim has been proven false by counterexample. In Texas people have and still can used lethal force legally for the sole purpose of protecting property in certain situations.

131 posted on 01/27/2003 2:59:04 PM PST by On the Road to Serfdom
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To: WL-law
Cases are lost on defense counsel's motion to dismiss for failure to prove a key element of the crime

If a few seconds' thought convinced the judge that there was failure to prove a key element of the crime, it is clear that the prosecutor had no evidence to back up that element, and therefore should be sanctioned for wasting the taxpayers' money and the defendants' time with a frivolous (and possibly malicious) prosecution.

132 posted on 01/27/2003 3:20:18 PM PST by steve-b
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To: Double Tap
http://citypaper.com/2002-09-04/campaign.html

In the press releases during the campaign it looks like they called her everything except stupid. 'course she probably won re-election. I haven't looked that far yet.
133 posted on 01/27/2003 3:40:34 PM PST by Shooter 2.5
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To: Shooter 2.5
This might be indicative of why she went after the two guys who shot the hammer-perp.

Among her accomplishments in office, Jessamy lists introducing computer technology to the State's Attorney's Office, expanding its homicide division, and creating a gun unit, a wiretapping unit, and several community-outreach programs.

134 posted on 01/27/2003 4:01:02 PM PST by Double Tap
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To: WL-law
"We wholeheartedly agree."

Not if the facts and events were hammered to fit a template. I have seen to many zealous prosecutors who, for reasons of their own vanity, political agenda or perceived "calling", will not back down even when they have a bad case. Overcharging is common in some jurisdictions for purposes of plea bargaining, as well as sending "messages" to the public that even if you are innocent we will make your life miserable for daring to use a firearm.

There is no doubt in my mind that all too often the political agenda comes first.

135 posted on 01/27/2003 4:08:11 PM PST by Ches
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To: Double Tap
"Jessamy lists introducing computer technology to the State's Attorney's Office,"

I heard she helped Al Gore invent the Internet too. Ho ho.

136 posted on 01/27/2003 4:12:50 PM PST by Ches
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To: Ches
LOL!!!

I'm sure that the State Attorney's office had never heard or used computer technology before 1995.

137 posted on 01/27/2003 4:23:15 PM PST by Double Tap
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To: steve-b
If a few seconds' thought convinced the judge that there was failure to prove a key element of the crime

Well, it's not a few seconds thought. It can happen when you try (defend) a case that you realize, at some point during the prosecution's case-in-chief, that he has made a fatal error or omission. And the judge may realize it, too. And so as soon as the prosecutor rests you make your successful motion to dismiss. The judge grants it summarily because he, too, has noticed the error, for some time, and when the prosecution rests it is, at that moment, TOO LATE to correct the defect.

So a judge can grant or decide immediately -- it doesn't mean he hasn't been thinking about it all the way through the case.

138 posted on 01/27/2003 5:25:22 PM PST by WL-law
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To: WL-law; steve-b
Oh, goody. The case was so screwed up the verdict could have been decided before it was even over. That really makes the prosecutor look like an idiot.


From those links, it looks like the prosecutor wasn't doing her job. She had her own agenda.
139 posted on 01/27/2003 7:09:13 PM PST by Shooter 2.5
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To: nunya bidness
She would rather prosecute the Baltimore City cops than the hoods they are arresting. Why she ever proceeded with this is beyond me.

But then this is the city where an individual was charged with carrying a concealed weapon while in their own home...

140 posted on 01/28/2003 4:33:30 AM PST by Abundy
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