Of Arms and the Law

Navigation
About Me
Contact Me
Archives
XML Feed
Home


Law Review Articles
Firearm Owner's Protection Act
Armed Citizens, Citizen Armies
2nd Amendment & Historiography
The Lecture Notes of St. George Tucker
Original Popular Understanding of the 14th Amendment
Originalism and its Tools


2nd Amendment Discussions

1982 Senate Judiciary Comm. Report
2004 Dept of Justice Report
US v. Emerson (5th Cir. 2001)

Click here to join the NRA (or renew your membership) online! Special discount: annual membership $25 (reg. $35) for a great magazine and benefits.

Recommended Websites
Ammo.com, deals on ammunition
Scopesfield: rifle scope guide
Ohioans for Concealed Carry
Clean Up ATF (heartburn for headquarters)
Concealed Carry Today
Knives Infinity, blades of all types
Buckeye Firearms Association
NFA Owners' Association
Leatherman Multi-tools And Knives
The Nuge Board
Dave Kopel
Steve Halbrook
Gunblog community
Dave Hardy
Bardwell's NFA Page
2nd Amendment Documentary
Clayton Cramer
Constitutional Classics
Law Reviews
NRA news online
Sporting Outdoors blog
Blogroll
Instapundit
Upland Feathers
Instapunk
Volokh Conspiracy
Alphecca
Gun Rights
Gun Trust Lawyer NFA blog
The Big Bore Chronicles
Good for the Country
Knife Rights.org
Geeks with Guns
Hugh Hewitt
How Appealing
Moorewatch
Moorelies
The Price of Liberty
Search
Email Subscription
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Credits
Powered by Movable Type 6.8.8
Site Design by Sekimori

« On a given day, anything is possible | Main | My Reason article is online »

Stevie Wonder to boycott "stand your ground" states

Posted by David Hardy · 17 July 2013 05:08 PM

Story here. Since such laws have been enacted in 30 States, the article notes, he's going to have to curtail his performance schedule. That's actually an understatement, since many of the remaining States have a "no retreat" provision by court rulings. Duty to retreat has always been a minority view in the US -- if I recall, under ten States follow it.

10 Comments | Leave a comment

Raconteur | July 17, 2013 5:31 PM | Reply

I'll be sure to write him & tell him Virginia is one of the states he needs to boycott. He hasn't done any worthwhile music in years and certainly won't be missed.

TinCan Assassin | July 17, 2013 5:48 PM | Reply

In related news, Stevie Wonder to begin his UK and Canada Tour.

Carl from Chicago | July 17, 2013 7:49 PM | Reply

I think that US Supreme Court precedent even supports the "stand your ground" position ... Brown v. US I think it was, in the 1920s. Yep, federal precedent, from sea to shining sea.

I suspect either old Stevie is screwed, or perhaps just didn't mean what he said. My money is on the latter.

Jim D. | July 17, 2013 10:18 PM | Reply

There's only six states that require you to retreat:

Arkansas
Iowa
Nebraska
New Mexico
Virginia
Vermont

That's not going to be much of a fan base.

Tom in Seattle | July 17, 2013 11:14 PM | Reply

Vermont?!

Raconteur | July 18, 2013 7:41 AM | Reply

Sorry Jim D., but Virginia is not a "retreat" state. In common law, Virginia is a SYG state.

Harry Schell | July 18, 2013 8:03 AM | Reply

Good. He's getting old. A hard travel schedule can be hard on an old man.

Jim D. | July 18, 2013 3:59 PM | Reply

Raconteur, Happy to accept Virginia has "no duty to retreat". I think the list I found was looking for statutory exceptions and Virginia's is case law and didn't show up.

Gotta admit though, that fan base is shrinking faster and faster, particularly if Carl is right.

Eldon Dickens | July 18, 2013 6:54 PM | Reply

Ran into "DTR" my first criminal justice exam in law school. That led me to understand how unfair and artificial the idea is. It lets the prosecutor determine what is self defense or not: definition both so broad and so vague prosecution can interpret at will and use innuendo and supposition as evidence. It shifts the burden of proof to the defendant and it essentially eliminates the requirement of mens rea. I you donÂ’t retreat in any way the jury or judge might imagine you could retreat or should have at least tried, youÂ’re guilty.

The law school exam "case" was taken from one of the Prof's students in Chicago. Three times while riding the bus to law school, defendant was approached by a young apparently African-American man and asked if he had any spare change. Whether the response was affirmative or not, defendant was then beaten into submission and robbed. Three times he was hospitalized as a result. The fourth time, defendant struck his confronter pre-emptively, the potential assailant slipped, fell against the steel rail at the back of the bus seat, and was killed. I suspect from the Prof's comments to the class that almost none of us thought the DTR was relevant: how the Dickens does one retreat from a bus seat? Yet obviously the duty applied and there was no reason to exempt that particular set of facts. My argument was that the expectation that the defendant would be assaulted was reasonable if not unavoidable under the circumstances and that defendant could not have possibly expected his one punch to kill his assailant, that he had not used either dangerous or deadly force, and could not be held to a homicide. That was weak, legally, but should not have been. Prof was not impressed. His student was convicted of some level of homicide for failing the DTR.

Raconteur | July 18, 2013 8:55 PM | Reply

Hey Jim, No big thing. We in Virginia have looked at SYG law for several years and have had problems with the proposed laws not being as strong and good as our case law.

Leave a comment