January 26, 2012, 07:31 PM #10
pax
Staff
Join Date: May 16, 2000
Location: Washington state
Posts: 5,748
Quote:
I often wondered if an old man, lets say, he had a bad ticker, would be required to take a Butt Whipping from an much younger, stronger guy, instead of using his hand gun to protect himself.
Kraig,
Civil law has a concept called the "eggshell skull" doctrine, which basically says an attacker takes the victim as he finds him -- that when someone commits a negligent act that leads to another person getting injured, then that person is culpable for the entire extent of the injury even if the victim had some pre existing condition that turned what should have been a minor problem into a major one.
In criminal law, a similar doctrine applies in self defense. The attacker doesn't have to know he is putting you in legitimate & reasonable fear for your life. You simply have to know it and be able to articulate your reasonable belief that (for example) someone about to punch you in the head was actually about to use deadly force against you whether he fully realized it or not. A man with a known issue such as a "bad ticker" would almost certainly find relief in such a rule.
See
http://www.useofforce.us/ for a really good overview.
(Disclaimer: IANAL, simply a firearms instructor who's also an autodidact with a wickedly obsessive reading habit.)
pax
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Kathy Jackson
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