Yeah, we can’t have a “as long as he’s on your property you can do whatever you want to him” situation like we see in some states. Which means there are definitely things you can do to an intruder that should result in you going to jail, and figuring that sort of thing out is what the courts are there for.
Obviously this is a new case and a lot of details are unclear, so I can’t speak much to this particular situation. But hypothetically, if some drunk guy came wandering into my house baffled about how “his” furniture was all different and rearranged and I started whacking away at him with a machete then I am clearly the asshole here and should be put away for a very long time.
Likewise if some guy comes in to rob me brandishing a pocket knife, I do the “that’s not a knife, this is a knife” routine brandishing my machete, and he backs away saying “woah dude I don’t want to actually fight” then I shouldn’t start whacking away in that situation either. Let him retreat. Though perhaps if I can make the argument that I couldn’t tell if he was retreating or attacking that might work as a defense.
There was a case a few years back where a farmer shot 2 teenagers burglarizing his house, with a shotgun. The papers made a stink about it. It turned out that he was only charged for the second. The first was shot in the chest, in his house. The second was shot in the back, while running up his drive. The first was “reasonable self defence”, the second was manslaughter.
Yeah, we can’t have a “as long as he’s on your property you can do whatever you want to him” situation like we see in some states. Which means there are definitely things you can do to an intruder that should result in you going to jail, and figuring that sort of thing out is what the courts are there for.
Obviously this is a new case and a lot of details are unclear, so I can’t speak much to this particular situation. But hypothetically, if some drunk guy came wandering into my house baffled about how “his” furniture was all different and rearranged and I started whacking away at him with a machete then I am clearly the asshole here and should be put away for a very long time.
Likewise if some guy comes in to rob me brandishing a pocket knife, I do the “that’s not a knife, this is a knife” routine brandishing my machete, and he backs away saying “woah dude I don’t want to actually fight” then I shouldn’t start whacking away in that situation either. Let him retreat. Though perhaps if I can make the argument that I couldn’t tell if he was retreating or attacking that might work as a defense.
It’s complicated. So to the courts it goes.
The UK has similar rules.
There was a case a few years back where a farmer shot 2 teenagers burglarizing his house, with a shotgun. The papers made a stink about it. It turned out that he was only charged for the second. The first was shot in the chest, in his house. The second was shot in the back, while running up his drive. The first was “reasonable self defence”, the second was manslaughter.