The Kindle version of this book is $10, the paperback version is $22 from Amazon - bottom line= HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Click here for a professional book review; or keep reading for my 'public education' review.
Paperback: 298 pages
Publisher: Law of Self Defense LLC; 2nd edition (July 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0988867702
ISBN-13: 978-0988867703
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#5 in Books > Law > Criminal Law
. .
The book is divided into 10 very concise chapters.
1) Criminal law - standards and burdens of proof, criminal justice 'pipeline and what happens when a person is 'charged'. It's an excellent legal primer.
Then come the 5 "Principles":
2) Innocence - Definition of Provocation, thresholds and regaining innocence
3) Imminence - The AOJ Triad and 'battered spouse syndrome
4) Proportionality - Deadly force
5) Avoidance - Duty to retreat, castle doctrine and stand your ground
6) Reasonableness - Objective and Subjective, presumptions of reasonableness
The final four chapters tell the rest of the story:
7) Defense of Others - parallel to self defense, rules to defend others, alter ego requirements
8) Defense of Property - highly and modestly defensible property, when greater force is allowed
9) After the fact - consciousness of guilt, innocence and your attackers reputation
10) Crafting a legally sound strategy - keeping out of trouble, minimize legal exposure, decision making under stress, diminishing your perceived legal vulnerability, facilitating acceptance of events.
Lastly don't forget the Postscript. Let's begin our review here at the end:
The book gives a sound understanding of lethal force and self defense. Unfortunately the law is always changing, a good site to stay on top of these changes is lawofselfdefense.com. Lots of court cases, statutes, jury instructions, updated on a ~weekly~ basis; if you don't buy the book, at least go check out that website.
Now back to the beginning, the introduction:
There are about 6 million serious crimes (murder, rape, robbery) in the US per year; odds are good you may have to defend yourself or a loved one with potentially lethal force. You can not count on the police to protect you, criminals almost never commit a crime when the police are around; you must be willing and able to defend yourself. The police will come 'after the fact' and put the ubiquitous chalk outline around your body, then try to find the criminal who ended your life.
Unfortunately even if you 'win' the physical confrontation, you will have to prove your actions were lawful; and you will be put under the microscope and be forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending yourself in a court of law.
Regardless of the legal implications you will have to face; don't misunderstand - you need Training : the knowledge, skills and abilities to actually successfully be able to defend your life if and when necessary. More important than this book or any legal issue - Win the fight, live!
This book does not teach anyone how to defend themselves physically, or pretend self defense, it is not a resource to 'game' the system. Legitimate self defense is when you truly have no other reasonable alternatives. This book will not make you a lawyer, but it will give you more information than most lawyers experience in their entire careers. The author offers a free newsletter just email him, or follow him on Twitter @LawSelfDefense . He wants you to consider this book as a resource, but not 'legal advice'; when in doubt, call a good criminal defense attorney. Best if you have one on speed-dial.
"Beyond a reasonable doubt" is only one of several court varieties of "standards of proof". It is what is required for a jury to determine if you are guilty of a crime, or if you legally defended yourself. Each juror member decides what that actually means themselves, there are no hard fast rules. Something else to consider "preponderance of the evidence" this is not usually used in criminal trials, but in civil matters (law suits) and generally means 'more likely' or anything more than 50%. Remember how OJ got off on the criminal trial "beyond a reasonable doubt", but got convicted in the civil trial "beyond a reasonable doubt"; it's much easier to convict. Preponderance of the evidence the prosecutor must disprove self defense - so the odds are much more in the favor of the defendant.
This chapter goes on to describe what happens when a person is arrested; it's a life altering event, and what happens during the 'Arraignment', pretrial motions, jury selection, trial, sentencing and appeals - it's all a big mess, but the best in the world. This chapter also goes on to give very brief definitions/advice on several serious crimes, such as Brandishing a weapon, Manslaughter, Assault/Battery, Illegal possession of a concealed weapon, accidental killing; etc. All from a very generic and high level.
I find the 'wrap ups' of each chapter to be very valuable; if you only had an hour with this book, just read the 'wrap ups' from each chapter.
The book provides excellent case examples especially regarding mutual combat, escalation, physical force, sustaining the fight, etc.
Also provided in the book are current (2013) tables of the provocation law by state, Maryland's reads:
The elements necessary to justify a homicide... onthe basis of self defense [include] the following: (3) The accused claiming the right of self defense must not have been the aggressor or provoked the conflict...Wilso v. State (2010) and An aggressor is not entitled to a self defense instruction if he initiated a deadly confrontation or escalated an existing confrontation to that level. Thornton v. State (2003).
For Maryland it goes on - The defendant who was the first combatant to employ non-deadly force is entitled to assert the defense of (perfect or imperfect) self defense against a combatant who has responded by employing deadly force. Wilson v. State (2011)[/I]
The AOJ Triad is expertly explained; Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy. Hat tip is given to Massad Ayoob and his lectures for doing a lot to educate law-abiding citizens on these legal constructs. A case example is provided.
Reference to Maryland's 'battered spouse syndrome, statues & Case law is provided: M.C. Section 10-916 Addison v. State, 981 A.2d 698 (MD Ct. App. 2009).
Death or grave bodily harm for Maryland is : Sydnor v. State, 776 A.2d 669 (MD Ct. App. 2001)
There are 17 'duty to retreat' states. Castle doctrine and 'curtilage' are explained, as is advice concerning your place of business and occupied vehicles. The few exceptions to Castle doctrine and 'Stand your ground'.
Advice for Maryland:
General duty of non-aggressor to retreat before use of force in self defense - Only before using deadly force (Sydnor v. State (2000). No Retreat in Castle (dwelling) - Barton v. State (1980)
Defense of others - Most states do not make a difference between you defending yourself and defending another person. There are a few states that added additional factors to defend someone else, they are: Delaware, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Idaho and South Dakota. The primary difference seems to be that you have to actually know the people well enough to comprehend their situation, and therefore understood you have a higher duty to protect those people you know.
Ok, so I hope I wet your appetite and I highly encourage you to read this book; its much cheaper than paying an attorney to give you less information for a lot more money.
Stay safe!
Click here for a professional book review; or keep reading for my 'public education' review.
Paperback: 298 pages
Publisher: Law of Self Defense LLC; 2nd edition (July 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0988867702
ISBN-13: 978-0988867703
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#5 in Books > Law > Criminal Law
. .
The book is divided into 10 very concise chapters.
1) Criminal law - standards and burdens of proof, criminal justice 'pipeline and what happens when a person is 'charged'. It's an excellent legal primer.
Then come the 5 "Principles":
2) Innocence - Definition of Provocation, thresholds and regaining innocence
3) Imminence - The AOJ Triad and 'battered spouse syndrome
4) Proportionality - Deadly force
5) Avoidance - Duty to retreat, castle doctrine and stand your ground
6) Reasonableness - Objective and Subjective, presumptions of reasonableness
The final four chapters tell the rest of the story:
7) Defense of Others - parallel to self defense, rules to defend others, alter ego requirements
8) Defense of Property - highly and modestly defensible property, when greater force is allowed
9) After the fact - consciousness of guilt, innocence and your attackers reputation
10) Crafting a legally sound strategy - keeping out of trouble, minimize legal exposure, decision making under stress, diminishing your perceived legal vulnerability, facilitating acceptance of events.
Lastly don't forget the Postscript. Let's begin our review here at the end:
The book gives a sound understanding of lethal force and self defense. Unfortunately the law is always changing, a good site to stay on top of these changes is lawofselfdefense.com. Lots of court cases, statutes, jury instructions, updated on a ~weekly~ basis; if you don't buy the book, at least go check out that website.
Now back to the beginning, the introduction:
There are about 6 million serious crimes (murder, rape, robbery) in the US per year; odds are good you may have to defend yourself or a loved one with potentially lethal force. You can not count on the police to protect you, criminals almost never commit a crime when the police are around; you must be willing and able to defend yourself. The police will come 'after the fact' and put the ubiquitous chalk outline around your body, then try to find the criminal who ended your life.
Unfortunately even if you 'win' the physical confrontation, you will have to prove your actions were lawful; and you will be put under the microscope and be forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending yourself in a court of law.
Regardless of the legal implications you will have to face; don't misunderstand - you need Training : the knowledge, skills and abilities to actually successfully be able to defend your life if and when necessary. More important than this book or any legal issue - Win the fight, live!
This book does not teach anyone how to defend themselves physically, or pretend self defense, it is not a resource to 'game' the system. Legitimate self defense is when you truly have no other reasonable alternatives. This book will not make you a lawyer, but it will give you more information than most lawyers experience in their entire careers. The author offers a free newsletter just email him, or follow him on Twitter @LawSelfDefense . He wants you to consider this book as a resource, but not 'legal advice'; when in doubt, call a good criminal defense attorney. Best if you have one on speed-dial.
"Beyond a reasonable doubt" is only one of several court varieties of "standards of proof". It is what is required for a jury to determine if you are guilty of a crime, or if you legally defended yourself. Each juror member decides what that actually means themselves, there are no hard fast rules. Something else to consider "preponderance of the evidence" this is not usually used in criminal trials, but in civil matters (law suits) and generally means 'more likely' or anything more than 50%. Remember how OJ got off on the criminal trial "beyond a reasonable doubt", but got convicted in the civil trial "beyond a reasonable doubt"; it's much easier to convict. Preponderance of the evidence the prosecutor must disprove self defense - so the odds are much more in the favor of the defendant.
This chapter goes on to describe what happens when a person is arrested; it's a life altering event, and what happens during the 'Arraignment', pretrial motions, jury selection, trial, sentencing and appeals - it's all a big mess, but the best in the world. This chapter also goes on to give very brief definitions/advice on several serious crimes, such as Brandishing a weapon, Manslaughter, Assault/Battery, Illegal possession of a concealed weapon, accidental killing; etc. All from a very generic and high level.
I find the 'wrap ups' of each chapter to be very valuable; if you only had an hour with this book, just read the 'wrap ups' from each chapter.
The book provides excellent case examples especially regarding mutual combat, escalation, physical force, sustaining the fight, etc.
Also provided in the book are current (2013) tables of the provocation law by state, Maryland's reads:
The elements necessary to justify a homicide... onthe basis of self defense [include] the following: (3) The accused claiming the right of self defense must not have been the aggressor or provoked the conflict...Wilso v. State (2010) and An aggressor is not entitled to a self defense instruction if he initiated a deadly confrontation or escalated an existing confrontation to that level. Thornton v. State (2003).
For Maryland it goes on - The defendant who was the first combatant to employ non-deadly force is entitled to assert the defense of (perfect or imperfect) self defense against a combatant who has responded by employing deadly force. Wilson v. State (2011)[/I]
The AOJ Triad is expertly explained; Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy. Hat tip is given to Massad Ayoob and his lectures for doing a lot to educate law-abiding citizens on these legal constructs. A case example is provided.
Reference to Maryland's 'battered spouse syndrome, statues & Case law is provided: M.C. Section 10-916 Addison v. State, 981 A.2d 698 (MD Ct. App. 2009).
Death or grave bodily harm for Maryland is : Sydnor v. State, 776 A.2d 669 (MD Ct. App. 2001)
There are 17 'duty to retreat' states. Castle doctrine and 'curtilage' are explained, as is advice concerning your place of business and occupied vehicles. The few exceptions to Castle doctrine and 'Stand your ground'.
Advice for Maryland:
General duty of non-aggressor to retreat before use of force in self defense - Only before using deadly force (Sydnor v. State (2000). No Retreat in Castle (dwelling) - Barton v. State (1980)
Defense of others - Most states do not make a difference between you defending yourself and defending another person. There are a few states that added additional factors to defend someone else, they are: Delaware, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Idaho and South Dakota. The primary difference seems to be that you have to actually know the people well enough to comprehend their situation, and therefore understood you have a higher duty to protect those people you know.
Ok, so I hope I wet your appetite and I highly encourage you to read this book; its much cheaper than paying an attorney to give you less information for a lot more money.
Stay safe!
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