King of the Castle - Castle Laws, Self-Defense and Deadly Force

About a week ago there was a national story about 18-year-old Oklahoma mother, Sarah McKinley, who shot and killed an intruder that kicked through her front door. McKinley was home alone with her newborn on New Year's Eve, her husband having died of cancer on December 25, when the intruder burst through the door and McKinley fired a shot from her 12-gauge shotgun killing the man. Immediately prior to the shooting, McKinley had been on the phone with a 9-1-1 dispatcher and she had asked "I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?" Apparently the dispatcher responded, "I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby."

In later developments, the local police departments declined to prosecute McKinley for manslaughter or murder because Oklahoma law has a provision, called a castle law, making a person's home their "castle" for purposes of self-defense determinations. State legislatures have begun enacting these castle laws - so called as they bring to mind the Medieval image of defending the king's castle from an invading army – which specifically authorize a person to use deadly force on an intruder to their home, and therefore make any killing resulting from the event justified (i.e. there is no criminal penalty).

Minnesota's legislature attempted to pass a full-blown castle law in 2008, however the measure failed to make it out of committee. The status of the law in Minnesota now is that generally an individual has a duty to retreat from violence before utilizing any type of force, deadly or otherwise. Self-defense is also defined by Minnesota law as the use of "reasonable force" under particular circumstances. Basically, a person asserting self-defense can succeed only when:

1. They are not the aggressor (didn't start the fight)
2. They had an imminent or immediate danger of death, great bodily harm (like the other person cutting your arm off), or a felony crime (like a rape)
3. The action taken was necessary (i.e. you had to defend yourself, and the manner in which you did it was appropriate)
4. The defendant could not retreat or otherwise avoid the danger

Generally you must retreat rather than use force because it is more reasonable to run away than shoot someone, if you can avoid it. There is also an overarching belief that killing another person is almost always unreasonable and therefore taking the life of another is only available in the most severe of circumstances.

After researching the issue for this post, there appears to be an exception to the retreat requirement if you are actually inside your house and use deadly force against an aggressor who is committing a felony, State v. Carothers, 594 N.W.2d 897 (Minn. 1999). But even then the court cautioned that "Defense of dwelling and self-defense within the dwelling serve a defensive and not offensive purpose, and do not confer a license to kill or to inflict great bodily harm merely because the offense occurs within the home."

So if Ms. McKinley was in Minnesota would the outcome have been different? Probably. At minimum, there would likely have been some inquiry in a criminal court as to whether her actions were reasonable. This would involve determining what the intruder was attempting to do, and what McKinley thought and felt, and whether shooting the man the moment he crossed through the door was reasonable in light of those facts. I would have to imagine that Ms. McKinley's story would be a sympathetic one to most juries, but at the same time, a judge would be looking at the situation and the status of the law as one where the killing of another person should only occur in the most dire of circumstances. If I was the judge I would be thinking that blasting a 12-gauge at anyone who comes through the door would not be reasonable until something more occurred, like the intruder pulling out a gun.

Questions or comments? Email: Jim Conway or post below