Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-mrvax!ddb From: ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Self defense Message-ID: <188@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 13:04:31 EST Article-I.D.: decwrl.188 Posted: Fri Jan 11 13:04:31 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 13-Jan-85 08:49:37 EST Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 25 Self defense, in the legal sense, is a very peculiar subject. In most jurisdictions you cannot legally use deadly force in defense of property; often you cannot use deadly force against a less deadly attack. Anyone interesting in defending himself would do well, I think, to investigate how these matters are treated in the jurisdiction where he lives. There is a horror story about an old woman who shot a male attacker in her own home, after he had chased her into the basement; she was convicted of some moderately serious charge, possibly a flavor of manslaughter, on the grounds that she could have escaped the attack by crawling out a window (remember how high above the floor basement windows are?), and thus the use of deadly force was not justified. I'd like to think this isn't true, and I've never seen a specific citation of the exact case, so maybe it really ISN'T true. But anyway, be careful who you kill and where you kill him! It has also been pointed out that it may well be better to worry about standing trial for killing your attacker, than to worry about recovering from the damage done to you in the attack. Here's hoping you never need to worry about it! -- David Dyer-Bennet -- ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-mrvax!ddb