“Under the stand your ground approach, you don’t lose your legal right to use deadly force in self-defense. The theory is that you shouldn’t have to surrender your right to remain where you lawfully are just because a criminal is threatening you.”
Apropos the stand-your-ground vs. duty-to-retreat debate, I thought I’d pass along an interesting case that illustrates how duty to retreat might work. Recall that, under a duty to retreat, if
- you are threatened with death, serious bodily injury, or some other serious crime, and
- you can avoid the danger by retreating with complete safety
- from some place other than your home (even though you’re legally present in that place),
- but you don’t retreat, and instead use deadly force to defend yourself,
then you lose your legal right to use deadly force in self-defense. The theory behind that is that you should have avoided the danger instead of using deadly force.
Under the stand your ground approach, you don’t lose your legal right to use deadly force in self-defense. The theory is that you shouldn’t have to surrender your right to remain where you lawfully are just because a criminal is threatening you.
By Eugene Volokh