Lots of hair-splitting on this one, to wit the right to defend your HOME against burglars and other scumbags, but not businesses.
But that's the law in Colorado, apparently.
If you have to shoot a scumbag in Colorado, you'd better make sure that all the criteria are in place:
1. Scumbag on my property? Check.
2. Scumbag in the process of stealing something of mine? Check.
3. Scumbag armed with a weapon of some type? Check.
4. Scumbag running away after I've got the drop on his ass? Check.
Put the weapon down, then. Can't shoot the scumbag since he's high-tailing it out of there, or is trying to hide someplace where he thinks I can't see him.
That's a lot of checking to do at 4 a.m.
Why not just say, "**** it," and just leave the doors and windows open? That way nobody gets hurt and while your stuff is stolen, the important thing is the scumbag is allowed to live to steal again.
All that said, civil lawsuits are apparently "easier" to prove in court -- in this case, that the scumbag's death was wrongful and that equates to $$ -- and that's why the judicial system is clogged full of them.
I wonder how much the attorneys are getting out of it? And whether or not the business owners are actually going to pay?
Remember the bullshit that OJ pulled to avoid paying when he lost HIS civil lawsuit for wrongful death?
I completely agree with you in this.. In 1999, my father and I were throwing a baseball in our front yard after we had a neighborhood barbeque. When it started to get dark, we decided to go back into the house, and all of a sudden we heard a scream. Considering that we lived in Miami, and had experienced random burglaries and thefts, my father, who was putting away the baseball gloves, grabs a baseball bat and takes off down the street. When I finally caught up to the area in which we heard the scream, I saw my dad standing over an completely unconscious hispanic male, along with some lady with her shirt torn and her 6 year old child wrapped around her leg.
Long story short, the mugger sustained a fractured skull, and surgery had to be done to relieve pressure from his brain. The DA declined to pursue charges of excessive force based on the fact that it was really only 1 swing of the bat, and that my father didn't continue to beat this man after he was rendered a non-threat. The civil side was an entirely different matter. The family of the criminal had contacted a plaintiffs attorney, and they tried to take my father for all he had in a lawsuit. They said that even though this man was armed, he never brandished the knife, therefore the use of a deadly weapon was not considered within the scope of the self-defense. The case went on for what felt like ages, and eventually a jury trial found my father negligent and awarded the plaintiff around $500,000 in damages to the mugger.
Of course my father appealed the verdict, and requested it be tried in a different district that wasn't predominantly hispanic, and the verdict was overturned and the plaintiff was awarded not a penny. My point in bringing this story up is that it's pretty ridiculous that there is a legal system in place that potentially penalizes people who are just trying to protect themselves and their properties. I guess that's the world we live in though.
