Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Good morning:
Opening statements in the Theodore Wafer porch-shooting trial are scheduled to start today at 9 am EDT.
The precise legal questions to bear in mind as you listen to the lawyers lay out their respective cases in their opening statements are:
(1) whether Wafer acted reasonably when he opened his locked front door and fired his shotgun through his locked screen door killing an unarmed Renisha McBride, and
(2) whether he acted reasonably depends on whether a reasonable person in his situation would have believed himself to be in imminent danger of being killed or suffering serious bodily injury.
Wafer must be presumed innocent. The prosecution has the burden of proving that Wafer did not act reasonably when he shot and killed McBride.
The issues are the same in the Pistorius case.
Although the circumstances vary somewhat, both men fired through locked doors killing their respective victims on the other side.
Did they reasonably believe themselves to be in danger of death or serious bodily injury?
You be the judge.
A news station in Detroit is LiveStreaming this morning here:
Split your screen. Watch the opening statements on one and comment on the other.
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Thanks,
Fred
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