Castle doctrine in Massachusetts

At the trial of a woman for killing a man in her home, ... there was evidence that during an argument between them the victim, who had beaten her on previous occasions, threatened her, that she then ran downstairs to a basement playroom where her children were, that the victim at first threatened to go down and kill her and the children and then said he would leave the house, but instead returned to the top of the stairs and went down a few steps, whereupon the defendant, without warning the victim, fired one fatal shot at him from a rifle ... she ran her mouth
FTFY.
 
My word!! My friend has a habit of talking b4 thinking which is causing him problems with an attorney that doesn't seem to know much unless it's ambulance chasing. I told my Knucklehead friend that you want an attorney that specializes in the type of case your dealing with. Not medical malpractice yesterday, divorces today and probate the next. Granted it is hard to find an attorney on short notice but then again sometimes you don't have the opportunity to go shopping for one.
DON'T HIRE THE FIRST ATTORNEY WHOSE NAME YOU SEE ON A BILLBOARD.
Well anyway I've been trying to find the section about not being in your castle but outside of it in your yard. I don't like it but you folks have pointed me to the right chapter but I can't find the section narrative that says outside of your castle that you have a duty to retreat if it can be done without exposing yourself to further injury (or something like that) I would be grateful if someone could show me the way to the information. I'm having trouble navigating the state web page to find what I'm looking for. Thanks folks. I do appreciate it. This guys attorney does not want to invest any time into this case but he sure wants his money. Amazing how he has done nothing between court appearances but has his hand out for the money suggesting that cash would be ok.
 
Nope, only within the walls of your home. MA Castle doctrine does not include curtilage.

I was just going to say that the statue needs to reference curtilage. But you beat me to it.

However, I had a friend denied a state firearms sales license because they considered the outbuilding he wanted to do it in was part of the curtilage of the house. But yet, the law that prohibits home based MA firearms sales license doesn't say curtilage either. I suspect that the concept of implied curtilage is applied where it serves the Government's interest.


This is about case law (that is, legal precedents) more than statute. You aren’t going to find most of this in the Mass General Law. You are looking in the wrong place.

See The Law of Self Defense by Andrew Branca.

Do you have any case names that we can look up if we don't want to buy that book and are willing to read the case docs??
 
Do you have any case names that we can look up if we don't want to buy that book and are willing to read the case docs??
Get the book. It is $9.99 on Kindle. It is THE book on self defense law for the average CCW person and it's an easy read. It's shorter than it looks because the end is dozens of pages of tables summarizing key laws for each of the 50 states.

It is much easier than expected to end up jailed for years and/or broke from lawyers. The book really helps with that risk.
 
No. Your post is wrong about both the origins of the term Castle Doctrine and the history of the Castle Doctrine in MA

The Castle Doctrine goes way back to English Common Law in the 1600s. The naming of this legal doctrine doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Governor Ed King.

From Wikipedia:


The legal concept of the inviolability of the home has been known in Western civilization since the age of the Roman Republic.[3] In English common law the term is derived from the dictum that "an Englishman's home is his castle" (see Semayne's case). This concept was established as English law by the 17th century jurist Sir Edward Coke, in his The Institutes of the Laws of England, 1628:[4]

For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man's home is his safest refuge].[4]

Actually, the Massachusetts so-called Castle Law is statutory, and the statute was enacted specifically to reverse the result in Commonwealth v. Shaffer, 367 Mass. 508 (1975), which held that the Castle Doctrine was not and never been a part of the Massachusetts common law.
 
I assume that you are referring to the Dylan Francisco shooting in Chicopee where the homeowner shot a drunk/high teenager through the door who was trying to break into his home.

He was found not guilty of Manslaughter by the state.

The $750,000 wrongful death suit was filed by his mother on July 8th and is still pending.

Bob

Mother of Dylan Francisco, teen mistaken for a burglar and shot in Chicopee, files wrongful death lawsuit against homeowner Jeffery Lovell

And this was a marginal case. I don't know of anyone in MA who had to make a "clean shoot" in his home who was even arrested.

People like to piss and moan. But this is a good thing. I think its partly because the law is so clear.

By "clean shoot" I mean that the victim was not engaged in any unlawful activity at the time of the attack, he owned his gun legally, and was not under the influence of any controlled substances.

Also, although you would most likely not be arrested, your LTC would probably be pulled during the investigation. Which means you would need to transfer all your firearms to a dealer or a friend (preferably out of state) until you got it back. If you are a 25 year old with two guns, that's no big deal. If you are a older and your firearms represent a substantial investment, its much more of a big deal.

One other thought. You don't really even need to transfer the guns to someone else because you would not become a prohibited person at this point. If you merely moved them to a free state, you would be ok since you don't need a MA LTC to possess firearms in that other state.

This link is to the criminal jury instructions on the use of force in defense of yourself or others. Its a good read.

 
any witnesses to the encounter? If not then it's a he said, he said. Not sure what the issue is. And if a tree in my yard falls on the neighbors house or a Tre in his yard falls on mine the insurance companies can fight it out. That's why I pay for insurance.
 
Yup. Not worth getting upset over. Nobody is hurt, nobody is dead, nothing was done on purpose.

It really is a no-brainer that its just not worth fighting over. And if the neighbor is upset. Walk away, go inside and call for a cop to come have a talk with him.

Never get into a fight you can avoid.

With that said. I love the fact that James "mad dog" Mattis is known to have quoted Jeff Cooper (I think) - Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.
 
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