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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Self-Defense & Murder
Message-ID: <281@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Jun-85 12:18:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.281
Posted: Wed Jun 26 12:18:02 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Jun-85 03:22:37 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
Lines: 18

A little while back, someone raised the issue of firearms-related deaths.
In the midst of that posting was a statistic for the number of murders
committed with firearms.  I responded with the remark that "a lot" of
the murders *charged* result in not guilty verdicts because of self-defense.

The phrase "a lot" can mean everything from "more than you think" to
">50%".  A more precise statement would be, "It is not rare for murders
charged to result in innocent verdicts because of self-defense."  I have
read several accounts of such cases in the newspaper, without going out
of my way to find such accounts.  Most recently was yesterday, when a
jury found a man named Aguirre innocent here in Orange County of murder
because of self-defense.

This case is about the 4th or 5th that I have read about; if reading local
newspapers brings me in contact with this many cases, it certainly isn't
rare; unless these verdicts just *happen* to be concentrated in areas I
live, it seems likely to me that perhaps 5% - 10% of all murders charged
are in fact self-defense; perhaps more.