Doc Intrepid
New member
Just a few observations to add to the discussion...
First, you lose nothing by providing information that is incontestable. It establishes that you are willing to participate in their investigation (to a point):
"My name is Joe Citizen. I live at 123 Sugarbush Lane in Anytown."
Second, also from Massad Ayoob - but also from a number of defense lawyers in Colorado who assist with NRA courses - "self defense" is an affirmative defense. As fiddletown stated, to use 'self defense' one must first admit to the act. But in admitting to the act, be cautious in how you state things:
"I was attacked by that person there (point to attacker)."
"I fired in their direction."
(e.g. don't say "I shot them". As you are not a doctor, you have no idea what their condition is or whether or to what degree you are responsible for it. You may not know in fact whether you hit them. Perhaps they had a stroke and fell down unconscious... Be cautious about how you phrase any statement you choose to make.)
But as others said, it would certainly be wise to establish up front the fact that as far as one eyewitness is concerned (you), you are the victim and the other person is the assailant.
Third, you may be arrested and booked, etc. If charged, you may even be convicted - IOW, (in Colorado) an affirmative defense establishes that your actions were reasonable under the circumstances, however, the court may recognize neverthless that you were responsible for homicide - justifiable though it may have been. So you certainly want to have counsel with you whenever talking to the police afterwards.
But making careful statements on the scene to responding law enforcement officers regarding information that either is incontrovertible; may preserve evidence useful to your defense; or otherwise establishes your relationship vis a vis any corpse on the scene ('he's the attacker, I'm the victim') generally cannot hurt you and often can help your case.
Refusing to say anything at all is seldom helpful.
It's a matter of how you say what you choose to say.
First, you lose nothing by providing information that is incontestable. It establishes that you are willing to participate in their investigation (to a point):
"My name is Joe Citizen. I live at 123 Sugarbush Lane in Anytown."
Second, also from Massad Ayoob - but also from a number of defense lawyers in Colorado who assist with NRA courses - "self defense" is an affirmative defense. As fiddletown stated, to use 'self defense' one must first admit to the act. But in admitting to the act, be cautious in how you state things:
"I was attacked by that person there (point to attacker)."
"I fired in their direction."
(e.g. don't say "I shot them". As you are not a doctor, you have no idea what their condition is or whether or to what degree you are responsible for it. You may not know in fact whether you hit them. Perhaps they had a stroke and fell down unconscious... Be cautious about how you phrase any statement you choose to make.)
But as others said, it would certainly be wise to establish up front the fact that as far as one eyewitness is concerned (you), you are the victim and the other person is the assailant.
Third, you may be arrested and booked, etc. If charged, you may even be convicted - IOW, (in Colorado) an affirmative defense establishes that your actions were reasonable under the circumstances, however, the court may recognize neverthless that you were responsible for homicide - justifiable though it may have been. So you certainly want to have counsel with you whenever talking to the police afterwards.
But making careful statements on the scene to responding law enforcement officers regarding information that either is incontrovertible; may preserve evidence useful to your defense; or otherwise establishes your relationship vis a vis any corpse on the scene ('he's the attacker, I'm the victim') generally cannot hurt you and often can help your case.
Refusing to say anything at all is seldom helpful.
It's a matter of how you say what you choose to say.
