If a guy shoves you, and gets in your face, and calls you a bitch, you actually can't just plunge a knife in his throat, and you are likely to get hit with a charge of murder. Generally, if someone is engaging in simple battery, you can't just start blasting.
It might be different if Alba can say, "I'm 75 years old and have brittle-bone disease". That way he can say that simple battery gives him the right to use lethal force. Florida actually has a law which explicitly allows senior citizens to assume deadly intent at a certain age when being attacked (which is why the man who shot a guy in the theater over a cellphone argument) got off. But this dude is looking at serious time, and I'm not sure he's gonna get off.
For the most part, all it does is give the defender a better argument: "I'm old and frail, therefore ordinary force done to me by an stronger, younger, man will inflict great bodily harm on me, thus necessitating lethal force to defend myself from the ordinary force which is effectively lethal force in my case."
Was that the case here? Barely, if at all. A shove and a grab? I wouldn't take that risk.
And you end up found out in jail while the person you tried to defend yourself against not only goes free, but has institutional support in keeping you from ever getting out.
If a guy shoves you, and gets in your face, and calls you a bitch, you actually can't just plunge a knife in his throat, and you are likely to get hit with a charge of murder. Generally, if someone is engaging in simple battery, you can't just start blasting.
It might be different if Alba can say, "I'm 75 years old and have brittle-bone disease". That way he can say that simple battery gives him the right to use lethal force. Florida actually has a law which explicitly allows senior citizens to assume deadly intent at a certain age when being attacked (which is why the man who shot a guy in the theater over a cellphone argument) got off. But this dude is looking at serious time, and I'm not sure he's gonna get off.
That depends on the state.
For the most part, all it does is give the defender a better argument: "I'm old and frail, therefore ordinary force done to me by an stronger, younger, man will inflict great bodily harm on me, thus necessitating lethal force to defend myself from the ordinary force which is effectively lethal force in my case."
Was that the case here? Barely, if at all. A shove and a grab? I wouldn't take that risk.
actually, you can.
fuck around and find out is the law of the land.
And you end up found out in jail while the person you tried to defend yourself against not only goes free, but has institutional support in keeping you from ever getting out.