=> Make My Day law + Felony Murder statute = California's Provocative Act doctrine <=
• UltraMan •
The homeowner is white, the robbers black. The charge falls under a rarely used law.
By Juliana Barbassa
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 11/16/2007 01:18:41 AM MST
LAKEPORT, CALIF. - Three young black men break into a white man's home in rural
northern California. The homeowner shoots two of them to death - but it's the
surviving black man who is charged with murder.
In a case that has brought cries of racism from civil rights groups, Renato Hughes
Jr., 22, was charged by prosecutors in this overwhelmingly white county under a
rarely invoked legal doctrine that could make him responsible for the bloodshed. He
is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 27.
"It was pandemonium" inside the house that night, District Attorney Jon Hopkins said.
Hughes was responsible for "setting the whole thing in motion by his actions and the
actions of his accomplices."
Prosecutors said homeowner Shannon Edmonds opened fire Dec. 7 after three young men
rampaged through the Clearlake house demanding marijuana and brutally beating his
stepson. Rashad Williams, 21, and Christian Foster, 22, were shot in the back. Hughes
fled.
Hughes was charged with first-degree murder under California's Provocative Act
doctrine, versions of which have been on the books in many states for generations.
The Provocative Act doctrine does not require prosecutors to prove the accused
intended to kill. Instead, "they have to show that it was reasonably foreseeable that
the criminal enterprise could trigger a fatal response from the homeowner," said
Brian Getz, a San Francisco defense attorney unconnected to the case.
The NAACP complained that prosecutors came down too hard on Hughes, who also faces
robbery, burglary and assault charges.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
The Rev. Amos Brown, head of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP and pastor at
Hughes' church, said the case demonstrates the legal system is racist in Lake County,
aspiring wine country 100 miles north of San Francisco. The county of 13,000 people
is 91 percent white and 2 percent black.
Brown and other NAACP officials are asking why the homeowner is walking free. Tests
showed Edmonds had marijuana and prescription medication in his system the night of
the shooting. Edmonds had a prescription for both the pot and the medication to treat
depression.
"This man had no business killing these boys," Brown said."They were shot in the
back. They had fled."
The district attorney said that race played no part in the charges against Hughes and
that the homeowner was spared prosecution because of evidence he was defending
himself and his family, who were asleep when the assailants barged in at 4 a.m.
Edmonds' stepson suffered brain damage from the baseball bat beating he took during
the melee. The 19-year-old lives in a rehabilitation center and can no longer feed
himself.
"I didn't do anything wrong. All I did was defend my family and my children's lives,"
said Edmonds, 33. "I'm sad the kids are dead, I didn't mean to kill them."
GeekBoy
"• UltraMan •" <ul...@man.jp> wrote in message
news:5q6f8rF...@mid.individual.net...
> Resident kills 2 burglars; 3rd charged with murder
>
> The homeowner is white, the robbers black. The charge falls under a rarely
> used law.
More examples of raci$t Pa$totor$ blaming the victim.
Had this been another black on black crime, there would be deathening
silence.
Phi
of it here.
comp...@hotmail.com
What does being shot in the back have to do with anything. The
attackers were
facing Mr. Edmonds as he was pulling the trigger. Between initiation
on pulling the
trigger and the hammer striking the primer, the attackers had truned.
Yeah, it's sad the two negros won't be beating someone esle's child in
the
head with a baseball bat.
richard
"good job bro' good job.".
Had 2 white boys been shot and killed, nobody would say a word.
Had they all been black, not a word.
Where is it written that blacks should get preferential treatment?
I do not believe that the prosecutor is correct in the charges either. This
is an election year and he may be playing up on that.
What I do not know is, where and when exactly were the people shot? Were
they outside the home while attempting to leave? As the one comment
suggests, they were shot in the back. To me, this is not an act of self
defense if that is the case. Self defense is taking action while the act is
being committed. Not afterwards.
While california prosecutors do nothing about persons using "medicinal
marijuana", it is still a federal crime. Most likely, the DEA will now step
in and charge the man with possession. Possibly file charges against the
man on the federal level.
• UltraMan •
> "Ą UltraMan Ą" <ul...@man.jp> wrote in message
>> Resident kills 2 burglars; 3rd charged with murder
>>
>> The homeowner is white, the robbers black. The charge falls under a
>> rarely used law.
>
>
> More examples of raci$t Pa$totor$ blaming the victim.
>
> Had this been another black on black crime, there would be deathening
> silence.
Either that was a really well placed pun ... or you're the stammering
semi-literate imbecile you usually are.
• UltraMan •
> Had it been 3 whites in a black man's home, the response would have
> been, "good job bro' good job.".
> Had 2 white boys been shot and killed, nobody would say a word.
> Had they all been black, not a word.
What if it was 1 Spic, 1 Nigger and 1 Kike in a Vietnamese restaurant ?
SaPeIsMa
"richard" <sp...@google.dom> wrote in message
news:1pipah1qodknw$.dlg@google.com...
If was a melee at 4 am where the residents were woken from sleep by the
thugs
They were apparently beating the stepson (19) with a baseball bat when they
were shot. A beating that left the stepson brain-damaged to the point where
he can't even feed himself
Hughes did a rabbit when he saw his fellow thugs get "interrupted" beating
someone with a baseball bat. If you are defending someone else, there is NO
NEED to be "facing" them to shoot them. You can shoot them from ANY
direction
I doubt that on this one the DEA will do anything