Understanding the legal concept of justifiable homicide in California is crucial. For instance, if someone breaks into your home and you use deadly force, you could potentially claim justifiable homicide. While the prosecutors could charge you with murder, having a justifiable reason allows you to defend the crime. This legal concept is covered under California Penal Code Section 197.
But of course, you want to look at the jury instruction. The relevant jury instruction in Los Angeles, California, is under CALCRIM 506. It talks about justifiable homicide related to your property. It basically says that the defendant is not guilty of murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, or attempted voluntary manslaughter. So even if the person doesn't die, they can still charge you with attempted murder or attempted voluntary manslaughter, but this defense would apply if you can meet four elements.
Self-defense or Defense of Another Person
The first element, which is the defendant's reasonable belief in defending a home against a certain person about to commit a violent crime, is crucial in justifiable homicide. This belief is the foundation of the defense.
Element number two has to do with a defendant who reasonably believed that the danger was imminent, meaning it was going to happen right then. You can't say that belief in future harm is not sufficient, no matter how great or how likely that harm might be. That's not going to be enough to use deadly force at that point right there.
Element three states that the defendant reasonably believed that the use of deadly force was necessary to defend against the danger and used no more force than was reasonably necessary.
So, that's talking about; if somebody knocks on your door and they're a solicitor and you open the door and shoot them, obviously nobody's doing anything thee. You've gone too far, and you're going to be charged with a murder charge in Los Angeles County.
However, if somebody is sneaking into your house in the middle of the night, and they're wearing a mask and they're armed, and you end up shooting that person inside your house, you've got a pretty darn good argument that the danger was imminent.
They were coming in. They were armed. You were scared to death. You didn't know whether they were coming in to burglarize you, to rob you, to rape you, to kill you, so you certainly could use deadly force to defend yourself, and that would meet all of the elements that I just mentioned in that scenario.
Reasonable Belief of Danger
So, we're really talking about somebody deciding to use deadly force in their home against another person and then being able to argue that that was a lawful killing. In other words, that was a justifiable homicide because people are certainly allowed to defend themselves in their own homes if they feel they reasonably feel that they're in danger.
Obviously, people coming into other people's homes in the middle of the night is going to be a very bad situation for the person who ends up getting shot in that circumstance because the person whose home they're coming into certainly has a right to defend themselves and anybody in the home.
Where we have problems is when people are trying to defend property. This comes from the classic case where the farmer puts the spring gun inside his residence that he's not in for six months out of the year, and somebody opens the door to that residence, and they're going to be shot. Now, that farmer is purely protecting property with deadly force, and that is not going to be permitted in Los Angeles or anywhere in the United States of America.
Reasonable Force Under the Circumstances
So, the bottom line is as long as you can show that whatever force you use is reasonable under the circumstances and not too much. You can also make the argument that you're defending yourself within your home, that you're scared, and that there's imminent danger; now, you're in a position to argue this was a justifiable killing, or even if you shot at somebody and winged them. They go away; you're not going to be able to be charged with attempted murder because it's justifiable under the circumstances. After all, you're defending yourself, you're scared, there's imminent danger versus a scenario where you're only defending your property, that's not going to be good enough.
We've got to inject some fear in there. That's why if somebody's running out with some of your property and you shoot them in the back, there's no longer imminent fear. That's no longer reasonable. They're not going to let you use deadly force and kill somebody just because they're taking your property.
You certainly can call the police. You certainly can use whatever force is necessary to defend yourself, but you can't go too far and use too much force if all you're doing is protecting your property. But, if in the process of protecting your property, you feel fear because something may well happen to you or one of your family members, now the force starts to become more justifiable.
So, if you or a loved one is in this circumstance where you're being charged with a murder charge in Los Angeles County, you think it's a justifiable homicide because some of the facts meet some of the criteria that I've mentioned here, pick up the phone.
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