59
I would just like to clarify, in addition to the other answers and what Dale M alluded to, one important detail: Unless you are carrying out the death penalty, no one under any circumstances is allowed to kill anyone else. What you are sometimes authorized to do, is to use deadly force.
There is an important distinction between the two. When using deadly ...
16
According to California Penal Code Section 187
(a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a
fetus, with malice aforethought.
Penal Code section 197 and 198:
Homicide is also justifiable when committed by any person in
any of the following cases:
When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a
felony, ...
15
Can an employer be required to provide an escort from office to
vehicle?
No, at least, not on the theory articulated in the question.
I can imagine some circumstances where it is conceivable that there might be a duty arising from some other source, like an OSHA regulation applied to a firing range business, or an express contract with the employee (...
15
Edits added below to outline Florida's laws based on OP's comment
Jurisdiction does matter but here is a general answer regarding "stand your ground" laws. States that have so-called "stand your ground laws" each have their own language concerning the law. "Stand your ground laws" are often misunderstood but, generally, just mean that a person has no duty ...
11
This area of law is dependent on affirmative defenses that states may choose to provide. I found two law review articles that present the situations in Georgia and Indiana.1, 2
Georgia
Georgia Code 16-3-23 provides a defense for the occupant in this situation. Epstein argues that this statute is somewhat ambiguous but it most likely even applies when the ...
11
In the situation described, the defender is unlikely to get out alive. In most such cases the police will be very proactive in trying to kill the shooter. They have radios and if a "man down" alert occurs, they will be out for blood.
If the shooter survives, the odds in court are against him, but not impossible. In one cases the defendant survived and ...
11
If you have a reasonable belief you or someone else is in imminent danger you have the right, under California law, to defend yourself with "no more force than was necessary to stop the threat."
Which means that yes, in that situation you would be acquitted of murder and assault charges.
However, if the knife falls afoul of local weapon laws, you could ...
10
The doctrine of self defence makes it legal to use reasonable force to defend yourself and others against the threat of unlawful and immediate violence.
There is no question there is a threat of violence, there is no question it is unlawful, it would be legal if it could be demonstrated the threat was immediate or that a reasonable person would believe it ...
10
Self-Defense Law In A Nutshell
Self-defense (or defense of others) with deadly force is generally authorized when a reasonable person would believe that the use of death force is necessary to prevent death or serious bodily harm to a person (i.e. there aren't non-deadly options that can accomplish this end) and a reasonable person would believe that the use ...
9
I'll use Washington state as my source, but laws will be similar in other states. RCW 9A.76.020 outlaws obstructing a law enforcement officer, which this would be: it is a gross misdemeanor. In using lethal force, you would have committed first degree murder, under RCW 9A.32.030. There is a defense that can be used, per RCW 9A.16.050, that homicide is ...
8
The General Rule
In practice, the only time when self-defense against a police officer is legal is when you do not know and have no reasonable way that you could have known that the person attacking you is a police officer. (And arguably, a police officer acting in an official capacity in furtherance of his or her duties, rather than in a personal capacity ...
7
The general rule is that using force in self-defense is justified if the person using the force reasonably believes it immediately is necessary to prevent the unlawful use of force against themselves or a third party. Deadly force is not generally justified except in response to a reasonable fear of deadly force, or to prevent certain violent crimes (like ...
7
If I remember the case correctly, he didn't make his home look uninhabited (that is nobody is living there) but as if the inhabitants had left (gone shopping etc.) to make it look attractive to burglars.
He then waited inside, armed with a gun, with the intent of shooting any burglars that might arrive. He shot the first burglar in the legs, and then ...
6
Some kinds of companies (e.g. freight shipping companies and banks) often do have those policies. The real issue is not whether those policies are permitted, but what the consequences are for breaking them.
The fact that a company forbids its employees from exercising a legal right doesn't mean that the employee ceases to have that legal right. It simply ...
6
Absolutely No
Unlawful entry into someone's property depends on the circumstances, but on land without barriers, generally you need to make the person aware that coming onto the property is trespassing and violators will be prosecuted and there is differing laws in jurisdictions to what you can do to get trespassing to be acknowledge, but they all require ...
5
Can law enforcement/military shoot to kill for merely making a phone call that is deemed treasonous?
Treason, per se, is probably not a valid reason to shoot someone on the spot given how that crime is defined in the U.S. Constitution.
But, keep in mind that in Arrival the situation has been defined as a military operation. As a result, the relevant body of law would be the law pertaining to actions that a military officer may take to carry out a mission ...
5
This question does not indicate in what jurisdiction the hypothetical events take place. Since they are hypothetical, I am going to assume the United States. Perhaps other answers will be given for other jurisdictions. I would be interested to read such answers.
The Officer's Authority
In the hypothetical situation described, it would appear that the ...
5
This answer assumes that with the term electric gun that you mean a electric gun, which is also called a Taser.
Is it permissible to bring an electric gun in a hoster just in case of self-defense?
With the exception of Austria, such devices are generally forbidden.
In many, the police were allowed to use them, but that is now often restricted....
5
Laws that add special penalties to killing a police officer require that the accused knows that the victim is a police officer, for example DC 22-2106 (emphasis mine)
(a) Whoever, with deliberate and premeditated malice, and with knowledge or reason to know that the victim is a law enforcement officer or public safety employee, kills any law enforcement ...
4
This actually happened in Germany in 2010: When police raided the home of a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, the member fired a gun through the closed door before the police could identify themselves. One officer was killed.
The killer was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2011, but was acquitted on appeal by the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal ...
4
I'm based in England, but I'm sure the principle is similar in Canada.
The night club or concert venue is private property. When someone owns or rents private property one of the main things they are buying is the right to control who is present on that property, and generally they can use reasonable force to remove people who are not authorised.
Security ...
4
This is related to Can a store sell merchandise I've left in the store? The phone in question has been mislaid and anyone who finds it has a duty to deliver it to the owner of the bench for safekeeping pending the true owner's return: if the owner does not return within a reasonable time the phone becomes the property of the bench owner (e.g. the city ...
4
Absent a special contract, nobody has a legal obligation to defend another person from assault or battery – not even police.
The use of lethal force can be justified if one reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent (and unjustified) death or great bodily harm to oneself or another.
As usual, the "reasonable person" test would be applied ...
4
Can law enforcement/military shoot to kill for merely making a phone call that is deemed treasonous?
The answer to the titular question is, "Yes, and it need not even be a treasonous phone call."
In the United States anyone can be justified in using lethal force if they can establish that, in the moment, it was reasonably necessary to prevent imminent, grievous, and unlawful bodily harm to themselves or to another person. (The italicized terms may vary by ...
4
In addition to the general considerations of (1) who is allowed to use non-deadly physical force to maintain order in a shop (which I think that one could do if "deputized" by the property owner or to protect the property of another as well), and (2) the use of non-deadly physical force to make a citizen's arrest (which many of these scenarios would justify ...
4
Illegal weapons
Weapons are defined and are made illegal by statute. In many states, it is illegal to possess brass knuckles. For example, California penal code 12020(a)(1) makes it illegal to possess "any metal knuckles", "writing pen knife", "any leaded cane", among other things. I don't know of any state where it is illegal to pick up a stick, or keys, ...
4
You could almost define a country as, "an entity that can defend itself against invasions."
Non-sovereign entities are indeed generally prohibited from deploying lethal autonomous defense systems like booby-traps.
But governments and state-like actors, as a matter of practice, choose their own rules. laws-of-war and international-law are not like "regular"...
4
This is governed by Sections 32 through 35 of the German Criminal Code which are admittedly a bit vague:
FOURTH TITLE: SELF-DEFENCE, NECESSITY AND DURESS
Section 32 Self-defence
(1) A person who commits an act in self-defence does not act
unlawfully.
(2) Self-defence means any defensive action that is necessary to avert
an imminent ...
4
Deadly self-defense is legal in Germany. The self-defense law (in particular Sect. 32 of the Criminal Code) makes no restrictions as far as the type of aggression and the type of defense is concerned. That means that - in principle - you can defend yourself against an attack by any means that is necessary to stop it. The principle behind that is "das Recht ...
4
This is the Texas law pertaining to self defense, which says that "a person is justified in using force against another when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect the actor against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force". Relatively little of the law pertains to firearms, and none of it ...
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