The Volokh Conspiracy - "Johns Hopkins Med Student Kills Thief With Samurai Sword,"

reports NBC Washington:

[T]he student said that he heard a commotion in the house and went downstairs with the samurai sword. The student said he told the man to leave, but the suspected burglar lunged at him instead. That's when, according to [a police spokesman's account of the student's statement], the student defended himself, cutting off the man's hand and causing a severe laceration to the man's upper body.

A student asked me whether the student would be criminally or civilly liable. My quick look suggests that in Maryland, one may only use deadly force — even in one's home ---- if one reasonably believes that one is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. (That's the rule for both the criminal law self-defense defense and the tort law defense.) If the student is accurately reporting that the burglar lunged at him, while the student was holding a sword, that might be enough to reasonably fear imminent danger of serious bodily injury. If someone attacked me when I was visibly armed with a deadly weapon, I think I could reasonably believe that he must be very dangerous himself. To be sure, I wouldn't know it with complete certainty, but the law only requires reasonably belief.

On the other hand, if the prosecutor concludes that the student didn't reasonably fear death or serious bodily injury, but feared only slight injury or loss of property, then the prosecutor might well charge the student with murder or manslaughter, and if a jury agrees then it might convict. (The crime might be manslaughter, even if the student didn't reasonably fear death or serious bodily injury, either if the student was so angered by the lunge that he acted under provocation of the sort that might lead a reasonable person to kill, or if the student sincerely but unreasonably believed that he was in danger of death or serious bodily injury.)

In some states, special statutes provide that one may categorically use deadly force against unlawful intruders, without having the prosecutor and jury decide whether one actually feared serious bodily injury. But I believe Maryland is not one of those states.

	[Eugene Volokh, September 15, 2009 at 5:17pm] Trackbacks "Johns Hopkins Med Student Kills Thief With Samurai Sword," reports NBC Washington: [T]he student said that he heard a commotion in the house and went downstairs with the samurai sword. The student said he told the man to leave, but the suspected burglar lunged at him instead. That's when, according to [a police spokesman's account of the student's statement], the student defended himself, cutting off the man's hand and causing a severe laceration to the man's upper body. A student asked me whether the student would be criminally or civilly liable. My quick look suggests that in Maryland, one may only use deadly force — even in one's home ---- if one reasonably believes that one is in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. (That's the rule for both the criminal law self-defense defense and the tort law defense.) If the student is accurately reporting that the burglar lunged at him, while the student was holding a sword, that might be enough to reasonably fear imminent danger of serious bodily injury. If someone attacked me when I was visibly armed with a deadly weapon, I think I could reasonably believe that he must be very dangerous himself. To be sure, I wouldn't know it with complete certainty, but the law only requires reasonably belief. On the other hand, if the prosecutor concludes that the student didn't reasonably fear death or serious bodily injury, but feared only slight injury or loss of property, then the prosecutor might well charge the student with murder or manslaughter, and if a jury agrees then it might convict. (The crime might be manslaughter, even if the student didn't reasonably fear death or serious bodily injury, either if the student was so angered by the lunge that he acted under provocation of the sort that might lead a reasonable person to kill, or if the student sincerely but unreasonably believed that he was in danger of death or serious bodily injury.) In some states, special statutes provide that one may categorically use deadly force against unlawful intruders, without having the prosecutor and jury decide whether one actually feared serious bodily injury. But I believe Maryland is not one of those states.