Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
COURTHOUSE - While the necessity of expanding the Castle Doctrine in Pennsylvania was questioned during the past year by state lawmakers and law enforcement officials, this week Gov. Tom Corbett signed a bill into law allowing wider use of deadly force.
State residents already had a right to defend their homes or businesses if threatened by an intruder, but the new law makes it lawful now to use deadly force anywhere a person has a legal right to be - in a car, a park or a shopping mall.
As well, the law eliminates the requirement that a person under threat must first consider retreating before defending himself, and restricts civil lawsuits by criminals who may want to sue crime victims who have injured them.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman insists the old law was sufficient to handle any self defense case; a new one wasn't needed.
"I think part of the frustration that many prosecutors had was the fact that we knew the way that we were applying the existing self defense law, and we knew that you didn't have people getting arrested because they were legitimately defending themselves," Ferman said.
The DA pointed to the death of Joseph McNair, who was fatally shot in 2008 by his Perkiomen neighbor, Darryl Simmons, an off-duty SEPTA police officer.
After a two-year investigation, the DA's office concluded Simmons was "legally justified" in shooting McNair even though the victim was unarmed, given that McNair had allegedly made repeated threats to kill Simmons and his family, and during the confrontation, the SEPTA officer thought McNair was going to shoot him.