A 15-year-old boy has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Use of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony for killing a man who investigators say was viciously attacking his mother inside their Virginia home Tuesday afternoon.
Investigators have identified the man as the mother’s boyfriend, 37-year-old John Conroy Jr. Capt. Jeff Pearce said earlier that day, Conroy and his 36-year-old girlfriend got into an argument that “lasted for hours”. Conroy then physically attacked her while the woman’s son watched.
“At that point, the 15-year-old son went to a place in the home where he knew there was a firearm,” Spotsylvania Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Jeff Pearce said .”[He] took a semiautomatic firearm from a nearby location in the room and fired several shots at Conroy, striking him multiple times.”
The woman was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Detectives, in consultation with the Spotsylvania Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, filed petitions for the arrest of the teenager who fired the shots that killed Conroy, Pearce said, and that under Virginia law, all homicides are considered second-degree murder.
What I want to know is what this story says true? Does killing someone in self defense or defense of another here in Virginia AUTOMATICALLY mean you're going to jail and have to spend your life savings on legal costs?
AlanM
There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men. - RAH
Four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo - use in that order.
If you aren't part of the solution, then you obviously weren't properly dissolved.
I can't speak to the specifics of the law, but I have seen an arrest with release a few days later with the explanation that a determination of self defense had been made. In that case I assumed that the defender was too poor to get a lawyer so he was arrested for the duration of the investigation.
I am no expert but if you are being attacked someone with a weapon, or stopping a attack with a weapon you are more justified. If you are facing the threat of being beaten that is less likely justified, but could still be. I am a member of https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/. They offer advice and insurance if you are involved in a self defense event. They do mention your are highly possible to be arrested in the event of a self defense shooting, of course this depends on the situation...
In any case the only thing to say is "My life was threatened by the suspect, his/her weapon is there, I will make a statement but I need a lawyer first".
I am pretty sure must of us know that and excusable defense is if you were in a situation where you felt that your or another are at risk of gross bodily injury or death. However, that perceived threat must meet a vague criteria that a reasonable thinking person would perceive those actions as a threat of gross bodily injury or death.
The upside is, that vague criteria lead to the creation of a piece of legislation that goes a long way in justified lethal force. That piece of code revolves around something called "Disparity Of Force". Basically, disparity of force means something as simple as, if the victim is 90 lb 80 year old female and the attacker is a 25 year of Golden Gloves boxer, the attacker themselves, their body and capability are considered a lethal weapon.
I would think that in this case, a reasonable thinking person in the same position as the teen, would perceive those actions by the boy friend as a threat of gross bodily injury or death based on disparity of force. We'll have to see how things pan out.
(1) When you kill someone, it's murder; period. Some murders, because of issues of circumstances and intent, might be deemed manslaughter or justifiable homicides, but that depends.
Self defense is an affirmative defense to murder. If you act in self defense and the prosecutor/judge/jury believe your perception and version of the facts you will neither not be charged or be found not guilty, but that is because you had a defense to the charge of murder; not because you didn't do one.
(2) Also, there is a possibility that a prosecutor/judge/jury will decide that you used excessive force and/or acted unreasonably. For instance, in this case it might be argued that the mother wasn't in danger of being killed but was just getting beat up.
"The Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." -Thomas Jefferson
Gun-crazy? Me? I'd say the gun-crazy ones are the ones that don’t HAVE one.
Must keep the language clear and consistent. Killing someone is not the definition of murder. Killing someone without justification is murder. Self-defense, or defense of an innocent victim, is justification that removes the term "murder" from the conversation.
This distinction is important. The Bible does not say "Thou shalt not kill." It says "Thou shalt not murder." Centuries of weak-minded coddling of violent criminals have been based on this mis-translation.
The idea of "excessive force", just like the arguments for "gun control" is also a weak-minded misinterpretation of how justice works. It is the argument that a 105-pound woman only has the right to engage in a fistfight with a 250-pound rapist, because she's only going to get beat up and/or raped. Correct justice says that nobody has the right to initiate violence against another person, and anyone who violates that precept has forfeit his human rights.
If you want your life to matter, you are obligated to treat others as though their lives equally matter.
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I'm pretty sure most people as well as state code are aligned with a mix of what both of you are saying.
From everything I have read/studies about defensive shooting, it appears that regardless of how a life is taken, it is called homicide. If it is excusable of justified, then it's called justifiable homicide. If it's an unattended accident, then it's negligent homicide. Then there are still further degrees of criminal homicides.
It's important to remember the Old English use of the word didn’t refer to killing in general, but to killing which is unlawful or wicked. I'm statutory code, we don't see the word murder very often, typically reserved for reference to the two highest degrees of homiced... crime of passion known as Murder and homicide planned it detail in advance, know as premeditated murder. Premeditated murder in the first degree is considered the worst of the worst. It is usually plan well in advance, methodical, violent and driven by greed or hate.
I'm telling you guys what the law is, here; not debating justice, morality, religion or opinion, etc. (And God knows we should all be careful not to confuse justice, morality, religion or opinion with THE LAW.)
The prosecutor was quoted as saying: "under Virginia law, all homicides are considered second-degree murder". WHY DID HE SAY THAT? BECAUSE IT IS THE LAW.
Murder, as you can see below, is "the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person". That's what this kid did when he took a gun and shot his mother's assailant several times.
It was murder, but apparently not CAPITAL murder as defined by § 18.2-31, so must be murder in the second degree. As a matter of law, justifiable/unjustifiable may excuse him from culpability for murder, but murder is what he did.
....................................................................................
CODE OF VIRGINIA:
§ 18.2-31. Capital murder defined; punishment.
The following offenses shall constitute capital murder, punishable as a Class 1 felony:
1. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of abduction, as defined in § 18.2-48, when such abduction was committed with the intent to extort money or a pecuniary benefit or with the intent to defile the victim of such abduction;
2. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another for hire;
3. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by a prisoner confined in a state or local correctional facility as defined in § 53.1-1, or while in the custody of an employee thereof;
4. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of robbery or attempted robbery;
5. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of, or subsequent to, rape or attempted rape, forcible sodomy or attempted forcible sodomy or object sexual penetration;
6. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a law-enforcement officer as defined in § 9.1-101, a fire marshal appointed pursuant to § 27-30 or a deputy or an assistant fire marshal appointed pursuant to § 27-36, when such fire marshal or deputy or assistant fire marshal has police powers as set forth in §§ 27-34.2 and 27-34.2:1, an auxiliary police officer appointed or provided for pursuant to §§ 15.2-1731 and 15.2-1733, an auxiliary deputy sheriff appointed pursuant to § 15.2-1603, or any law-enforcement officer of another state or the United States having the power to arrest for a felony under the laws of such state or the United States, when such killing is for the purpose of interfering with the performance of his official duties;
7. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of more than one person as a part of the same act or transaction;
8. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of more than one person within a three-year period;
9. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person in the commission of or attempted commission of a violation of § 18.2-248, involving a Schedule I or II controlled substance, when such killing is for the purpose of furthering the commission or attempted commission of such violation;
10. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another pursuant to the direction or order of one who is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise as defined in subsection I of § 18.2-248;
11. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a pregnant woman by one who knows that the woman is pregnant and has the intent to cause the involuntary termination of the woman's pregnancy without a live birth;
12. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a person under the age of fourteen by a person age twenty-one or older;
13. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another in the commission of or attempted commission of an act of terrorism as defined in § 18.2-46.4;
14. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of a justice of the Supreme Court, a judge of the Court of Appeals, a judge of a circuit court or district court, a retired judge sitting by designation or under temporary recall, or a substitute judge appointed under § 16.1-69.9:1 when the killing is for the purpose of interfering with his official duties as a judge; and
15. The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any witness in a criminal case after a subpoena has been issued for such witness by the court, the clerk, or an attorney, when the killing is for the purpose of interfering with the person's duties in such case.
If any one or more subsections, sentences, or parts of this section shall be judged unconstitutional or invalid, such adjudication shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remaining provisions thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the specific provisions so held unconstitutional or invalid.
§ 18.2-32. First and second degree murder defined; punishment.
Murder, other than capital murder, by poison, lying in wait, imprisonment, starving, or by any willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or in the commission of, or attempt to commit, arson, rape, forcible sodomy, inanimate or animate object sexual penetration, robbery, burglary or abduction, except as provided in § 18.2-31, is murder of the first degree, punishable as a Class 2 felony.
All murder other than capital murder and murder in the first degree is murder of the second degree and is punishable by confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than five nor more than forty years..
"The Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." -Thomas Jefferson
Gun-crazy? Me? I'd say the gun-crazy ones are the ones that don’t HAVE one.
Well, I guess when a cop kills someone or the state executes a prisoner, they are committing second degree murder. I don't see exemptions for the police or the state.
