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A storekeeper, after having been repeately burglarized, waited in his darkened store and shot and killed a man who broke in. He was found guilty of murder. There were two factors against him. The first was that he laid a trap; it was not his home and his only purpose for being there was to kill an intruder. The second was that he had been heard bragging that he would fire without warning at any "SOB" who came in. The combination got him convicted.
A man who set a shotgun trap rigged so that opening the door pulled a string that set off the gun was also convicted of murder when his burglar trap killed a man. The jury found that first, he was not in danger (he was miles away), second that burglary is not a capital offense, and third that the victim could have been a child or someone simply seeking shelter. The trap had no fear and no judgement.
Jim
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