Internet Blogging Assignment #4: Due Tuesday October 20, 2009

Instructions: 

For your internet blogging assignment #4, please read through the following information regarding the “Castle Doctrine” and the brief summary I included about the movie Felon, which we viewed in class on Tuesday October 13, 2009.  After your read the information, read and respond to all five questions at the bottom of this post.  When you respond to the questions, please be sure to number each response.  Your internet blogging assignment #4 is due by the time your class begins on Tuesday October 20, 2009 in order to be considered for full points.  Please post your responses here on the blogging site just as you would any other blogging assignment.

Information:

According to the Castle Doctrine, a concept that emerged from English Common Law, citizens are justified in using deadly force to defend their “castle”, which includes in many states their dwelling (home) and in some states, their workplace and their personal vehicle.  Under the Castle Doctrine, if an intruder threatens or attacks a person or persons in their “castle”, if deadly force is used, it may be defined as “justifiable homicide” because the killing occurred during an act of self-defense.

According to Holmes & Holmes (1998)*, justifiable homicide differs from state to state within the United States.

States where neither the dwelling nor the property can be protected by the Castle Doctrine by an intruder include:  Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

 States where the dwelling can be protected but the property cannot be protected include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington D.C., Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

States where both the dwelling and the property can be protected by the Castle Doctrine include the following:  Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Montana and New Mexico.

States where the dwelling can be protected but there is no specific reference to whether or not the property can be protected include the following:  Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont.

 There is no law on the books in Ohio stating whether or not a person can use deadly force if threatened or attacked by an intruder in their own dwelling or on their property in the State of Ohio.

*Note:  Because of the date of the Holmes publication, some of the states listed above may have changed their laws regarding self-defense/justifiable homicide when threatened or attacked in their dwelling or on their property.  The above list is included to provide a rough idea of how much the justifiable homicide/Castle Doctrine laws differ across the United States .

 Other caveats included in the Castle Doctrine is that an intruder must be physically within the dwelling, acting illegally, the occupants of the home must have a reasonable belief that the intruder is going to inflict bodily harm or kill the occupants or that the intruder is going to commit some other felony act such as rape, robbery or arson, the occupant of the home (owner or renter) must not have provoked the intruder into their felony act and in some states, the occupant of the dwelling and/or property may need to make all reasonable means to “retreat” from the pending danger, thus leaving killing the intruder as the “course of last resort”.  In other words, because of the situation, the occupant had a reasonable belief that their life, and/or the lives of other occupants, were in danger and did not believe there was any other way to resolve the situation than to kill the intruder.

 Summary of Felon:

A loving husband and father finds his promising future transformed into a waking nightmare when he’s convicted of involuntary manslaughter after accidentally killing the burglar who broke into his home in this gritty prison drama starring Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer. Wade Porter (Dorff) would have done anything to protect his family, and when they were threatened he did what any caring family man would have done. But somehow everything went wrong, and now Wade has been sentenced to spend three years in a maximum-security prison. It’s a place where the rules of society have been all but forgotten, and in addition to sharing a cell with a notorious mass murderer (Kilmer), Wade somehow incurs the wrath of the sadistic head prison guard (Harold Perrineau). Now, in order to survive the series of vicious beatings orchestrated for the amusement of the guards, Wade realizes that in order to survive the block and get back to his family he will have to become the toughest felon of them all. But even if Wade does manage to live through this harrowing ordeal, what will be left of that loving family man once he’s finally released back into civilized society?

Summary written by:  Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide (Retrieved 10/13/09 from http://www.fandango.com/felon_v453379/summary)

 Questions:

In the movie Felon, in an attempt to protect his family from an intruder, Wade Porter chased an intruder out of the family dwelling and hit the intruder once on the head with a baseball bat.  Although Wade stated to the police investigator he swung for the intruder’s shoulder, the intruder “ducked”, thereby causing Wade’s swing to make full contact with the back of the intruder’s head, instantly killing the intruder. 

1.  Should it matter whether or not Wade had the “intention” to kill the intruder when he said he swung for the shoulder and instead hit the intruder’s head?  (Does where Wade swung the bat at on the intruder’s body make a difference as to whether or not the killing was classified as “murder” or “justifiable homicide”, or does only the point of impact and resulting injury matter?

2.  Using the information provided by Holmes & Holmes (1998) above, what would happen to Wade Porter in a court the State of Florida?  How about in the State of Montana?

3.  What part of the movie Felon interested you the most?  Why?

4.  Do you believe situations seen in the movie Felon can happen today, or do you believe “Hollywood” is portrayed in order to give the movie more interest to the viewers?  Be sure to provide at least one scene from the movie to explain your answer to this question.

5.  Why do you believe the movie Felon was chosen to be viewed during our class?