Woman in alabama, arrested

[F_Marturana]

So she fired willy-nilly in a crowd because someone pulled her hair? That’s not reckless but hair pulling is.

And the hair puller committed manslaughter.

I guess the gun owner had no gun safety training. I guess it’s not needed in Alabama?

 

[dochawk]

And on further reflection while I was trying to sleep last night . . .

It’s downright unusual for a misdemeanor grade assault to justify deadly force in response . . . I would expect a base felony charge in practically any case where such response was justified . . .

misdemeanor manslaughter is rare for a reason; by the time you’re doing something dangerous enough for death to be foreseeable, its odd to not be committing a felony . . .

hawk

 

[MamaJewel]

So she fired willy-nilly in a crowd because someone pulled her hair? That’s not reckless but hair pulling is.

And the hair puller committed manslaughter.

I guess the gun owner had no gun safety training. I guess it’s not needed in Alabama?

I don’t know about Alabama’s laws, sine I’m in Florida. But the article did say both women had their friends with them. Ebony Jemison, the shooter, told the reporter that she fired a “warning shot” in what is described by her words as more of a form of crowd control than in self-defense. Jemison is quoted saying, “there was just too much going on and too many bodies” and that the shot wasn’t intended to harm, but to get people to leave the area.

That doesn’t sound like she believed she was in imminent danger of physical harm to her person and needed to shoot in self-defense. Rather, Jemison seems reckless in randomly shooting the way she did.

 

[MamaJewel]

It’s downright unusual for a misdemeanor grade assault to justify deadly force in response . . . I would expect a base felony charge in practically any case where such response was justified . . .

I’m not sure what is meant by this.
“Stand Your Ground” is law in my state, so armed folks are allowed to get in somone’s face, and when that person stands up for him/herself, the armed citizen can shoot (and many times a jury considers it self-defense).

 

[F_Marturana]

I keep thinking of this. She shot a gun to disperse a crowd and that’s considered legitimate self defense.

A woman’s baby died and she’s to blame because she pulled someone’s hair.

It makes no logical sense to me.

 

[dochawk]

I’m not sure what is meant by this.

Simply that misdemeanor manslaughter cases are very rare. The type of acts which justify the. use of deadly force in response are almost always felonies–and felony murder not rare.

The specifics of this case are another matter, and I’m not going to get into. them beyond noting that it is quite clear that only some parts are coming out in some coverage, and others in other coverage (My wife’s news the other day completely. omitted that the mother attacked theater woman).

The charge agains the mother would have nothing to do with any stand your ground. or other laws, and is entirely independent of whether the other woman would be charged. If, for example, she was in a particularly rough bar where guns and knives are frequently pulled, it could be quite foreseeable that someone would shoot her when attack. Whether or not that shot was justified has nothing to do with the foreseeability of the shot.

The grand jury that presumably heard more of the actual facts than we have thought that force was justified–and that the attack was a crime.

 

[maryjk]

“Stand Your Ground” is law in my state, so armed folks are allowed to get in somone’s face, and when that person stands up for him/herself, the armed citizen can shoot (and many times a jury considers it self-defense).

Stand your ground is the law in about 25, or half of the states.

And it is still unusual.

 

[Theo520]

I keep thinking of this. She shot a gun to disperse a crowd and that’s considered legitimate self defense.

My understanding is it’s a very big no-no to fire a warning shot. Many a home owner has been arrested for that when they were trying to avoid bodily harm, and didn’t accidentally hit someone as this woman did.

“Stand Your Ground” is law in my state, so armed folks are allowed to get in somone’s face, and when that person stands up for him/herself, the armed citizen can shoot

verbal interactions are almost never deemed justification for assault as self-defense.
You never want to throw the first punch, pull the first hair.

 

[Lea101]

How can firing a shot to “get everybody to leave” be considered self-defense?
Ms. Jemison’s remark to the reporter doesn’t sound like she was in direct fear for her life.
Is it legally permissible for a person to fire a “warning shot” if he/she/they perceive that a situation is beginning to get out of control?

Yeah, i don’t see this one either.

 

[Dr_Meinheimer]

Probably not, if i believed the person had been attacked and was defending herself. But it is almost impossible to predict how we’d react if we lost a child in the moment. I could lash out and wish death in her for all I know. I certainly hope not.

Regardless, doesn’t really matter how either one of us would feel. It matters what the law says about self-defense in that state.

 

[Trader]

When faced with wrongful force, the victim doesn’t have a legal obligation to accept more risk to protect the wrongdoer.

I was thinking a little bit this morning. Suppose I am threatened by one or more people and produce a gun to protect myself. If one or more of those people attack me anyway, I have to make some quick decisions. As a reasonable man I conclude:

1. I am not dealing with reasonable people.
2. They intend to take my gun and then I will be in deep doo-doo.
3. Deadly force is justified.

While this may or not fit the exact scenario in this case, it is what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. A police officer was attacked and Michael Brown, a 290 pound man, tried to take his gun, then made a second attempt to attack the officer. After a lot of protests about the shooting of an unarmed man, the action was ruled completely justified. Neither a police officer nor a private citizen can wait until after the attacker is armed and the victim is not.

Months later a white female Chicago police officer declined to shoot a drug-crazed black man. When her backup arrived the perp was on top of her and banging her head on the pavement. If backup had arrived only seconds later, the officer would have been dead and the man would have been in possession of her weapon. That cannot be allowed to happen. She should have shot him to protect both herself and the community.

 

[DaveBj]

The case has been overtaken by events. The DA has dropped the charges; FNC just covered her (the DA’s) statement. We can all go back to other things.

D