“Also, after this case, most homeowners in the area will probably think: “I’d rather lose insured valuables than spend the rest of my life in prison.”
In other words, we have come to the point where the people realize that the state is now protecting the criminals.
Planning what you’d do for a home invasion is smart. Everyone should do it. Everyone should have contingencies.
Put another way, the line is currently drawn thus: steal on a less systematic basis, and you can do so with impunity.
Steal systematically, and the government will look upon you as a competitor.
Sorry, unless he knew, specifically, that those two were going to enter his home at that date in time, his actions were justified, no matter how heinous.
Unless it is that, or every otherwise law abiding citizen will hesitate at the very moment your life and the lives of your loved ones are in the balance and the time for planning is over.
No, we've come to the point that a homeowner who should have known better tried to use the legitimate legal protection of self-defense as a cover for murder.
And, as you and many others have done, the general public has taken away a confused message.
In reality, if Smith had called the police, the two would have been arrested for multiple crimes.
But he was the only criminal who survivied that day, so the law was only able to prosecute him for his crimes.
I know what the law says about self-defense and I will avail myself of it if the need arises.
But many people, who do not know what the law says and who did not inquire too deeply into Smith's moral turpitude, will now be cowed.
That's not the law's fault.
That's Smith's fault.
It has been pointed out repeatedly that he should have stopped as soon as the threat had passed.
To say that “Sorry, unless he knew, specifically, that those two were going to enter his home at that date in time, his actions were justified, no matter how heinous, really opens the door.
What if he had decided to torture them before killing them? Or rape the girl and then kill her?
There was a point where they became wounded prisoners and he became an animal.