Posted on 06/23/2016 11:26:35 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A homeless man convicted of criminal trespassing for taking shelter in privately owned buildings during harsh winter weather won a new trial Thursday when the state’s highest court ruled that he should have been allowed to argue it was his only way to protect himself from the cold.
The Supreme Judicial Court found that the judge at David Magadini’s trial was wrong to deny a request to instruct the jury on a so-called necessity defense. Magadini wanted to use that defense to argue that his behavior was justified for a person trying to escape extreme temperatures. […]
The owners of three properties in Great Barrington had obtained no-trespass orders against Magadini. He was convicted of seven counts of criminal trespass for entering the buildings in February, March, April and June of 2014, and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Excellent reply!! d:^)
But he can be punished for not having healthcare. Welcome to Amerika 2016
Is it immaterial that he, himself, put his life into imminent danger, by choosing that lifestyle?
Regards,
3 hots and a cot for him in jail.
Problem is it will not be kept narrowly. Not with todays courts and judge campaign contributing lawyers.
Private property has never been an absolute right. Ask any mariner about the duty to render aid.
Yup, the later breakins nullify the extreme weather defense 100%.
Most likely. That’s why his defense should and will probably fail.
I’m not taking up for the guy. I am a fan of the “competing harms” doctrine and I like it to get its legs stretched often.
If Boston is having sub zero temperatures in June, maybe those "climate deniers" have a point.
Marxists, who openly pursue the abolition of private property, count on people believing that.
Private property has never been an absolute right.
That does not appear to follow. Also, there is no universal duty thereof, legally speaking.
Ask any mariner about the duty to render aid.
Where is Pope Francis? Has he no compassion? Why didn’t the Catholic Church take him in??
Spoken like a northeaserner who never has to deal with Mexico.
If he slipped through going the wrong way he would be dead.
He can be punished for breaking and entering!
There are plenty of shelters he could have gone to.It is about 85 degrees outside.
The places are almost empty in the summer.
“But they are so mean with all kinds of mean and nasty conditions. Some of them require that you are sober. Some even require that you listen to someone say grace over the food before it is served.”
Or they’re places where you get robbed, assaulted and/or raped. Sometimes just for fun by the cops who are supposed to protect you...
Can’t say how I know here but I have first-hand knowledge of what goes on in those places.
According to the US Coast Guard: All ship and aircraft commanders have an obligation to assist those in danger of being lost at sea. This long recognized duty of mariners permits assistance entry into the territorial sea by vessels, and, under certain circumstances, aircraft, without permission of the coastal state to engage in bona fide efforts to render emergency assistance to those in danger or distress at sea. This right is independent of the right of innocent passage, transit passage, and archipelagic sea lanes passage and is recognized in Article 18.2 of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. These efforts to render assistance must be undertaken in good faith and not as a subterfuge. This right applies only when the danger or distress is reasonably well known. It does not extend to entering the territorial sea to conduct a search.
...
Both the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 LOS Convention provide that every state shall require the master of a vessel flying its flag, insofar as can be done without serious danger to the ship, crew, or passengers, to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost and to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress if informed of their need for assistance, insofar as it can reasonably be expected.
In addition, SOLAS requires the master of every merchant ship and private vessel to assist persons in distress and to broadcast warning messages with respect to dangerous conditions or hazards encountered at sea.
Why don’t these free loaders pay “their fair share?” If Obama would force everyone to buy a home there would be no homelessness.
Freddy the Freeloader couldn’t get into jail when it was freezing.
count yourself fortunate that you "find it hard to believe." That probably meant that you've never found yourself in that situation.
Shelters have limited 'beds' and when full they turn people away...and in the worst of weather, they fill up fast. - and people freeze to death.
It's only porous one way.
You cross into Mexico illegally, you're a criminal. You been 'on vacation'
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