{"id":76815,"date":"2022-02-01T16:46:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=76815"},"modified":"2022-02-01T16:46:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T22:46:31","slug":"76815","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=76815","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I’ve found that a lot of prosecutors, even purportedly Republican<\/em> prosecutors, don’t like it that self defense is legal.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutor labels Missouri self-defense bill “Make Murder Legal Act”<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the most basic tenets of our criminal justice system is that you are considered innocent until your guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In a criminal case, it\u2019s not up to the defendant to prove they didn\u2019t commit a crime. It\u2019s up to prosecutors to prove to the jury that they did.<\/p>\n

Yet in Missouri, individuals charged with a crime of violence who acted in self-defense don\u2019t start with the presumption of innocence. Instead, self-defense is considered an affirmative defense, which puts the burden on the defendant to prove they\u2019re not guilty of the charges levied against them. Some Republicans in Missouri are hoping to change that, but prosecutors, sheriffs, and police chiefs are\u00a0attacking the bill<\/a>\u00a0and calling it a license to murder.<\/p>\n

I refer to it as the \u2018Make Murder Legal Act,\u2019\u201d said Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver, a Republican representing the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are doing with this bill is \u2026 basically saying the 6,500 assaults that are committed every single year in Missouri \u2014 that every single one of those are automatically presumed to be self defense,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, why\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0<\/em>you start with the presumption that someone was acting in self-defense, and then see where the evidence takes you?<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, you have a right to defend yourself,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cThere\u2019s no one saying you can\u2019t defend yourself. But you do have the burden of injecting the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill \u201cshifts that burden into a presumption that you are automatically engaged in self defense,\u201d he said. \u201cSo long as the person is dead \u2026 you automatically have immunity because there\u2019s not someone else to even say what had happened.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This argument doesn\u2019t make any sense to me. The bill shifts the burden of proof onto prosecutors, which is exactly where it\u2019s supposed to lie. As for Oliver\u2019s claim that, so long as the person who was assaulted dies, there\u2019s automatic immunity, that\u2019s just ridiculous. Would police lose access to any potential forensic evidence, eyewitness testimony, or other factors that could help lead to a conviction if the bill being debated becomes law? No they would not.<\/p>\n

The only thing that would change under SB 666 is that it would be up to the prosecutor to prove that the defendant committed a criminal offense, instead of the defendant having to show they acted in self-defense. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s unreasonable. Frankly, I think that\u2019s what the law should have been from the get-go.<\/p>\n

While the bill\u2019s critics were out in force, there were some supporters testifying in favor as well, including Mark McCloskey, the candidate for U.S. Senate who became nationally known after he and his wife displayed firearms on the lawn of their home as a crowd of rowdy protesters marched through their gated community on their way to demonstrate outside of the home of St. Louis\u2019 mayor in the summer of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill before the Senate now turns the Castle Doctrine into a bar to prosecution,\u201d McCloskey said. \u201cWe were shocked to find out when we were charged that the Castle Doctrine can only be raised as an affirmative defense. \u201cYou have to have the jury decide the issue of whether or not you committed a crime, and then whether or not the Castle Doctrine provides you with a defense,\u201d McCloskey said. \u201cThat\u2019s backwards.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Completely backwards, but I hope that the Missouri legislature can turn things around this session and place the burden of proof back where it belongs; on the prosecution, and not on the defense.<\/p>\n

While testimony on the bill was heard in the state Senate\u2019s Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee on Monday, the legislation didn\u2019t come up for a vote and it\u2019s unclear when the bill may move to the Senate floor. The lobbying by prosecutors and law enforcement may sway some Republicans to keep the status quo in place, but frankly, the laws aren\u2019t supposed to it easier for the state to obtain a conviction in criminal cases\u2026 at least not at the expense of the rights of the defendant. I understand why prosecutors like Oliver want to keep the status quo in place, but that doesn\u2019t mean I agree with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I’ve found that a lot of prosecutors, even purportedly Republican prosecutors, don’t like it that self defense is legal. Prosecutor labels Missouri self-defense bill “Make Murder Legal Act” One of the most basic tenets of our criminal justice system is that you are considered innocent until your guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76817,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815\/revisions\/76817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}