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Friday, July 28, 2006

Courts - Kentucky judge criticizes lethal-force law

According to this AP story:

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A judge has criticized a new Kentucky law that allows people to shoot home intruders without being charged with a crime.

"I'm not quite sure that the drafters had even a marginal knowledge of criminal law or Kentucky law," Fayette County Circuit Judge Sheila Isaac said. "It is absolutely silent on the court's role."

Isaac made the comments Wednesday in rejecting James Adam Clem's request to have his murder charges dismissed because of the law.

The law says a person has the right to use lethal force if he has "reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred." It also applies if a person is attacked in a public place "where he or she has a right to be."

Clem, 27, says he killed Keith Newberg, 25, in self-defense after Newberg allegedly attacked him upon entering Clem's apartment early Aug. 9, 2004.

Isaac sided with prosecutors, who said that whether Newberg was an intruder or had committed a crime is a factual question that jurors must decide.

"To go into whether he is immune clearly requires fact-intensive decisions" that judges should not make, Isaac said.

Prosecutors around the state have expressed concerns about the law, which they say is difficult to interpret and raises numerous questions.

University of Kentucky law professor Robert Lawson, widely considered the state's foremost expert on criminal law, sharply criticized the law. It was approved overwhelmingly by the General Assembly this spring, and it took effect this month.

"It is the worst legislation I have ever seen in 40 years," said Lawson, the principal drafter of Kentucky's penal code, which was adopted in 1975.

Indiana's General Assembly passed a similar law earlier this year. See the second half of this ILB entry from March 18th, quoting from an earlier LCJ story that began:
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky is poised to join Indiana and several other states that have expanded people's right to shoot anyone they believe is threatening them.

Backed by the National Rifle Association, the measure became law in Florida last year and in South Dakota last month. Last week, it was approved by lawmakers in Mississippi and Indiana.

The Indiana bill, now law, is HEA 1028.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 28, 2006 08:56 AM
Posted to Courts in general