Posted on 05/31/2012 8:25:13 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Despite ‘Castle Doctrine,’ defendant is convicted in slaying
A PHILADELPHIA JUDGE said Wednesday he was convinced that a disabled, retired Marine was being attacked in the moments before he fatally stabbed a man last October, but he concluded that the stabbing was still a criminal act rather than self-defense.
Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner then convicted Jonathan Lowe, 57, of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. The judge found him not guilty of the more-serious charges of first- and third-degree murder.
Lowe, who wears a pacemaker and has survived two strokes and two heart surgeries, could face up to 12 1/2 to 25 years in prison when Lerner sentences him Aug. 16.
The case underscores how uncertain the claim of self-defense can be, even in a state that revised its "Castle Doctrine" last year to give an individual the right to use deadly force in self-defense anywhere in which a person has a legal right to be. The revised law also eliminated the duty to retreat before using that force. Lowe’s case was featured in March in a Daily News article about the revision of that doctrine.
The voluntary-manslaughter conviction means that Lowe committed the stabbing under provocation but that his actions were unreasonable, or imperfect self-defense, Lerner said.
"There are some unanswered questions in my mind about what happened here," Lerner said. "We will never know exactly how this incident began, and I don’t think we will ever know, 100 percent, when the stabbing began."
During the two-day nonjury trial, Lowe and his attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, argued that he acted in self-defense on the evening of Oct. 1, 2011, when he was jumped by Loren Manning Jr., 51, and at least two other men on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near Bouvier Street.
"When he had his hands around my neck, I pulled out my knife and started stabbing him," Lowe testified Wednesday.
Stretton noted that Lowe stayed at the scene and cooperated with police, believing himself to be the victim.
Stretton said case law barred him from introducing Manning’s 18 criminal convictions at trial because Lowe wasn’t aware of them and most of them were too old, the most recent from 2002. According to court records, Manning was awaiting trial for allegedly knocking out a woman’s teeth while robbing her two years ago Thursday.
Assistant D.A. Carolyn Naylor argued this week that Lowe had been the aggressor.
Lowe testified that he used a small, quick-open knife to stab Manning after being knocked to the ground and choked during a robbery attempt.
Two Temple University students said Manning was chasing Lowe and trying to hit him with a metal pole before he caught him. Manning then pinned Lowe to the ground, they said.
But both students said they did not see Lowe stab Manning while the two men were on the ground, nor after Manning got up and quickly collapsed from four stab wounds in his neck, thigh and back.
Naylor seized on inconsistencies between the testimonies of Lowe and the students, including where the stabbing took place. She argued that before the students came upon the struggle, Lowe stabbed Manning from behind before both men ended up on the ground.
She noted that two stab wounds were in Manning’s back. She also said Lowe showed intent to kill with malice because after Manning fell mortally wounded, Lowe taunted him and even tried to stab him some more.
A travesty perpetrated on a Marine hero by a kangaroo court.
Virtually every jurisdiction allows a defendant to voluntarily waive trial by jury and have the case tried before the Judge, who will decide guilt or innocence. That's almost certainly what happened here and it was a foolish move. Most attorneys consider a bench trial nothing more than a long drawn out guilty plea. I would never advise a client to waive jury on a major felony.
Regretably, Philly is filled with black criminals, and they get to elect the Mayor and other officials. Pretty much all of the whites have moved out to the suburbs long since.
So with all these "unanswered questions," the judge found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?
His lawyer - if he had one - sucked hard. There is plenty of case law justifying higher uses of force than your attacker/assailant under the concept of “disparity of force”. This guy had disparity of force arguments in spades.
Attack on a victim by several people.
Attack on a disabled victim.
Attack on an elderly victim.
Attack with club-type object.
Attacker on top of, choking victim.
This should have been a slam dunk for a competent attorney.
When disparity of force exists and you are in a life-threatening/fearing permanent harm situation, you are able to use higher levels of force than your attackers BECAUSE you are going up against them with at least one signficant disadvantage that makes the situation far more deadly/injurious to you.
I reread the article and the other problem is he chose to have one judge hear the trial and give a verdict rather than a jury trial. He’ll have to appeal this now, hopefully they had that ready to go, and are putting up a stay of the sentencing until they get an appeal verdict.
Yes, it sounded to me like no jury, a bench trial. Seems like he might have done better with a jury. Perhaps he can appeal on the incompetent defense attorney for not insisting on a jury trial.
Wondering if the defense atty convinced him to go to bench trial since it was a slam dunk (or should have been considering what I’m reading)? This is very frightening.
The judge needs to be beaten until he requires the use of a wheelchair. Then he needs to be rolled into the center of Philidelphia and left there. Just to show that we’re not completely merciless, we’ll give him a steak knife.
Blame the lawyer for having the “faith” to take it to the Judge. Judges run for election in many states. They fear letting criminals walk. Hopefully, the voters will punish him for making a good man into a criminal.
Clearly there was reasonable doubt as the JUDGE said so!
Immediate appeal is warranted and the conviction over-turned based upon the judges comment.
Hmm. . .perhaps the judge did the Corely thing, convicted because the Marine was White and the thug killed was Black? (I admit, I did not read the article).
Just a thought.
“give an individual the right to use deadly force in self-defense anywhere in which a person has a legal right to be”
That should be AFFIRM the right. The right ALREADY exists.
If the circumstances are impenetrably vague to the court as claimed, the judge is supposed to acquit. Normally judges know better, and that is why suspects who know they are innocent are often advised to ask for a bench trial.
A horrible miscarriage of justice but considering it’s Philly not very surprising. I’ve had to go there a few times on business but fortunately not recently. A lib Democrap run cesspool.
A mistake that no American should ever make.
Someone didn’t fill him in with the program for the protocol after you, John Q. Citizen fell a criminal intruder. Don’t ever, ever taunt! As for this attempted to stab, how that no stabbing happened given the victim, er intruder, was lying there inert? Maybe the gentleman made gestures as if to stab more, but never touched again with the knife? I could excuse a few crude comments and gestures at this juncture.
It sounds like lousy application of law and good appellate fodder. But I’m only a peanut in the gallery.
Any freedom loving patriot would vacate areas/states like this. Nothing good will come from staying.
We are in very deep trouble in this country when travesty’s like this occur. Just yesterday I read an article about our President awarding the Medal of Freedom to an avowed socialist and now I get to read about a great American being jailed for killing a career criminal that attacked him.
Insanity abounds.
KYPD
I mustered out of the Air Force at Maguire AFB, NJ in 1976. Me, my wife, and newborn son, rode by bus from Maguire to Philadelphia airport to catch a Delta L1011 to Atlanta.
I remember the look on my wife’s face as we rode southward. The worst looking shithole countryside (blight if you aks me) ever seen - all the way to Philly. They can keep that garbage dump. Never been back for anything but work. Never will.
Pray, pray, pray. The choices ahead seem pretty much to comprise abysmal and not-quite-so-lousy. But the Lord can open up other doors.
Kentucky police department?
Oh, keep your powder dry.
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