Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: After intruder shooting in Fowlerville, here’s the law on self-defense – Legal Perspective
On Christmas Day, a home invasion in Fowlerville turned deadly when the homeowner shot and killed an intruder, who reportedly fired first.
What does state law say about taking a life in defense of one’s own?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the “castle doctrine” is a common law principle that says “individuals have the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves against an intruder in their home.”
“Stand Your Ground” legislation expanded on that doctrine by extending protections to any space the individual has a legal right to be. Michigan’s Self-Defense Act, adopted in 2006, states that anyone who’s not in the process of committing a crime when they use deadly force can invoke self-defense.
In the 1980s, a series of laws categorized under “Make My Day” — referring to a Clint Eastwood line in the 1983 movie “Sudden Impact” — protected individuals from prosecution in cases where deadly force was used against an intruder at home.
Michigan is one of 31 states without an inherent “duty to retreat,” a legal principle that requires individuals to try and escape a deadly situation before they use deadly force. In Michigan, self defense laws also apply to civil liability, meaning the person who used deadly force can’t be sued.
According to the University of Memphis Law Review, there are three elements of justified use of force in a self-defense argument:
- Proportionality: Someone must be confronted with deadly force before using it themselves.
- Necessity: Use of force must be necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to the individual or another person; with danger imminent or immediate.
- Reasonable Belief: The defender, and a reasonable person in the defender’s circumstances, must feel that deadly force is necessary to prevent the use of deadly force by the perpetrator.
Michigan has not adopted a “presumption of reasonableness” — which some states have used to replace the standard of reasonable belief. The presumption of reasonableness places the burden on the prosecution to prove the use of deadly force was unreasonable, rather than the defender proving it was reasonable.
In the case of the Fowlerville shooting, police said the intruder was the estranged husband of a female acquaintance visiting the homeowner. According to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, the intruder entered the home and fired multiple shots at the homeowner, who was struck twice. The homeowner fired back, killing the alleged perpetrator.
Afterward, the homeowner was transported to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The incident remains under investigation, but no charges have been filed against any of the parties involved.
— Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@livingstondaily.com.
(This story was updated to meet our standards.)