Excuse Defense Case Study

Justification is a legal form of defense. However, it is often confused with an excuse defense. By definition an excuse defense is defined as a type of defense in which the defendant claims that some personal condition or circumstance at the time of act was such that he or she should not be held accountable under the criminal law (Schmalleger & Hall, 2014). For example, Mary (defendant) attended a graduation party of a college friend. After the party she and Matt engage in a round of laced marijuana and get into a heated argument and she hits him in the head with a statue and he dies. During interrogation she claims that due to the effects of the marijuana she did not realize she had killed Matt. Mary’s defense Attorney could possibly use the
Background On November 2, 2013 Renisha McBride an unarmed black female pounded on the doors of Theodore Wafer’s house after she had crashed into a parked car about six blocks from his residence. According to the New York Times (2014), McBride had been drinking and smoking marijuana, which was the cause of the accident. Witnesses and neighbors offered help McBride who was bloody and seemed disoriented but she refused to wait for Paramedics. There are hours in between the time of the accident and the shooting at Wafer’s that are unaccounted according to the NY Times (2014).
According to the Chapman (2014), Wafer, a white gentleman, opened the front door of his house and fired one shot through his locked screen door. McBride died immediately from a shotgun blast to the face. Wafer testified that he was terrified, scared and felt threatened because in weeks prior his vehicle had been vandalized. Prosecutors asserted that Wafer acted lawlessly, failing to call the police and then shooting an unarmed woman without warning (Chapman, 2014).
In the case of Wafer, who plead not guilty, he felt threatened because his vehicle had been previously vandalized and grabbed his shotgun for protection when McBride approached his residences banging on his doors. However, the jury was put to the test to determine was deadly force necessary. The facts of the case state that the front door of his residence, where the incident occurred had two doors. The main door, which Wafer opened and a locked screen door where he fired the shot through. Although Wafer claimed self-defense the prosecution proved that there was no imamate danger to him and charged him with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Justification also includes conduct by the defendant that is not culpable because its benefits outweigh the harm or evil of the offense (Schmallenger & Hall, 2014). In People of MI v. Wafer the prosecutor stated that there was no evidence the suspect acted in lawful self-defense (Alter & Chapman, 2013). In Detroit there is no duty to retreat when you are in residence. Therefore, Wafer should have called 911 instead opening the door and blindly shooting. Michigan operates on the “Stand Your Ground” law that allows the use of deadly force against a serious threat, even if a person has the option to escape (Alter,