Man who shot Notre Dame student acquitted

[Expat]

It was a girl that was shot in the arm.

Why was the homeowner even charged?

It seems that even a lot of us on this board (myself included) question whether it is "reasonable" to shoot through a closed door at an unknown threat. That is why. Whether it was reasonable is up to a jury. In this case they found he was reasonable. He may be lucky that he didn't have more gun owners on his jury.

 

[finity]

Even though I think the law is crystal clear, not much will stop a dedicated prosecutor from going through with charges. They aren't paying for the prosecution out of their own pocket. Also, politics are used when it comes to law enforcement within the counties. The S. Bend Police are under the mayor's office. The mayor is part of the Democrat political party. The county prosecutor is also a Democrat. Which party usually sides with:
#1: Let government deal with everything?
#2: Guns should only be for cops?
#3: Some criminals need treatment and compassion, not jail time?

Just goes to show you, where you choose to live can absolutely impact your life. There have been a handful of these sorts of shootings, yet not everyone is charged. These differences affects folks not only with their physical freedom, but also financial freedom as well.

The personal feelings of those who control government can come into play in these situations. The prosecutor felt, himself, that they could get a conviction. While his office might have wasted money on two trials, that money doesn't come from his bank account, nor does he take a cut in pay for loosing. The state doesn't even have to reimburse the defendant either.

This entire incident might be another reason to avoid living in counties where Democrats are in control of law enforcement, from the police dept./sheriff's office to the prosecutor's office.

Using your logic then the "democrat" prosecutor shouldn't have charged the homeowner because he was a "criminal" therefore deserved "treatment and compassion, not jail time". Oh, where does the madness end!?

It's got nothing to do with who was in "control" of law enforcement. Many (if not the majority of) LEO's are conservative Republicans & will just as easily violate your rights as any of the liberal Democrat ones. So will Republican prosecutors. Along with Republican mayors, congressmen, senators, supreme court justices & presidents. It's the freaking nature of government that is the problem, not which political party that is in charge!

This is getting so old it's pathetic.

THINK FOR YOURSELVES PEOPLE.

As was stated above. Many times if the prosecutor isn't sure about the legality of the persons actions they will punt it to the jury to make the decision. I also tend to agree with that course of logic. That is sort of the reason our legal system is set up in that way in the first place.

It doesn't just happen with self-defense cases either. Would you (the ones who are so against the guy being charged at all no matter what) have a problem if the charges were for drug use, or any other "controversial" issue?

If it happened on a regular basis & people were getting charged for every "crime" no matter how obvious it was that it wasn't a "crime" then I could see the concern. As it is it's the way the system is designed to work. It's not always perfect but it's the best we've got.

If a prosecutor is consistently abusing his authority then find a way to get rid of him. If he get's re-elected/selected (however it works for prosecutors) then obviously the "people" don't have a problem with him. Then you need to work on changing the "people's" minds.