Justifying Homicide

Paper Summary:

Self-defense may sound self-explanatory, but it can, in fact, be very complicated. This is used as a justification in many cases, but it seldom works because of the misunderstandings about the laws. This paper discusses the current self-defense law and related laws in Tennessee, as well as the duty-to-retreat law and the castle law.

Table of Contents
1. Description of Self-Defense
2. Moral Dilemmas in Self-Defense
3. Self-Defense
4. Defense of Third Person
5. Protection of Life or Health
6. Protection of Property
7. Protection of Third Person's Property
8. Use of Device to Protect Property
9. Conclusion
10. References

From the Paper:

"Self-defense is usually not considered to be an actual defense to homicide or assault, but is seen as a justification of one's actions that were said to have caused serious bodily harm or death (Uniacke 1994:30). Joel Samaha (2005) defines justification as when the 'defendants accept responsibility for their actions but claim what they did was right under the circumstances'; (Samaha 2005:191). The basic principle of self-defense states that the defendant must have believed that he or she was facing the possibility of extreme bodily harm or death. Although killing is not morally permissive, the justification of self-defense is often accepted in courts when there is reasonable evidence to prove that the defendant acted in true self-defense and not in a preemptive attack or vengeful attack. A preemptive attack is one that is carried out by defendant who does not truly believe that he or she is about to be harmed or killed, but is acting to prevent the possibility of a future attack (Samaha 2005:192-193). Philip E. Devine describes self-defense as being the means in which a defendant 'incapacitates'; (Devine 1978:151) an attacker without the intention or sole purpose of killing the attacker."

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