Quote:
Originally posted by johnny:
quote:
Originally posted by Mouse:
Nobody gets put in prison for defending themselves as long as the force and methods of self defence used are reasonable.
Here's an example:-
Someone comes up to me in the street and punches me. I take a swing back, connect and he falls over. I walk away, he gets charged with assault or some other public order offence.
As above but when he falls over, I run up to him and stamp repeatedly on his head. He dies, I get charged with either murder or culpable homicide.
The difference is that in the second example, the force I used was far beyond what was reasonable given the circumstances and in a civilised society, I believe it's the judicial system or legislature to decide what constitutes reasonableness in any particular situation, not the individual.
|
Wise words indeed. So you say taking a swing at someone, after he punched you first is only natural, right ?
But what if that one swing causes the death of that person ? It could happen, i've heard it before. You didn't intend to kill him, but the outcome is the same as when you stamp on his head for a while. The force you used was not beyond reason, since you only reacted to a personal assault. But still....
How to judge a situation like that ? [/QUOTE]There are generally two parts to a crime, especially those that have developed in Common Law systems. there is the
actus reus which refers to the actual action and the
mens rea which refers to the unlawful intentions of the potential perpetrator. For a crime to be committed, both elements have to be present.
For example, if I walk up to someone in the street and punch them in the ribs, breaking a couple, then I'll most likely be convicted of assault. On the other hand, if that person has collapsed and I try CPR and break a couple of ribs, I won't be charged with assault.
Though in both cases, the third party's ribs are broken (
actus reus) only in the first instance was my intent (
mens rea) criminal in nature.
It's a bit more complicated than the above black and white example in the real world, where you may have to try to determine the criminal intent from the actions of the perpetrator.