University of Phoenix
CJA 354/Criminal Law
Week 2 Criminal Defense Case Analysis
Professor Peter Lukevich
Elsie Farias
May 11, 2015
Defense of Third Person
The American Criminal Justice system is an ever evolving entity. Laws and statues have continually morphed and been altered to meet the American societal needs. With this, there have been many different types of defenses, justifications and excuses within the Criminal justice system. All geared to aiding an individual accused of a crime during trial. One very interesting and delicate defense is the defense of others. According to the National Paralegal College (2014), the defense of another consists of “The right of a person to protect a third party with reasonable force against another person who is threatening to inflict force upon the third party.” This analysis will examine the nature of this defense as well as take note of the changes as well as example a case.
The common legal term is the “Alter Ego” defense. This states that it is an obsolete rule that an individual that comes to the aid of a third party has no more right to defend the third party than they would have to defend themselves. "Justification does not make a criminal use of force lawful; if the use of force is justified, it cannot be criminal at all." (Baker, D.J., Williams, G., 2012) Basically, this concept is founded on the rule that it is the right for people to use reasonable and/or defensive force in the defense of one’s own life or that of others.
The nature of this concept steams from Roman law, the Dominion principle, which asserts that any attack on family members or one’s property was a personal attack on the Pater familias, the male head of the household, by law, sole keeper of total dominion over all family and property. American society, in which activism and political turmoil present some American laws and statues as invasive to individual autonomy, the right to self defense is rightfully regarded as a fundamental human right. A notable change from the times of Roman law is that nowadays, there exists no need to have an established relationship to a third party one is defending as long as the defense of this person is reasonable and justified.
As with self defense, the defendant must establish reasonable belief that the defense is warranted. In the defense of others, this entails if the third party were able to, they would have reasonable reason to defend themselves. Many times, in these types of cases, it is common for people, the defender, to later face charges both criminal and civil for excessive or unwarranted force. In this defense, it is establish that one enters into the defense of a third party under one’s own peril and thus accountable for all actions.
State v. Beeley
On May 19, 1991, James Beeley was a bartender at a club in the East Providence of Rhode Island. After closing and stopping a while at a friend’s house, Beeley drove friend John Perry to Perry’s house and waited outside while Perry entered the house. Perry walked into the house to find his wife in bed with a naked make, Robert Harding. Beeley ended up, after hearing noise and being summoned by Perry, entering the house and entering a physical fight going on between Perry and Hardin. Beeley caused facial damage to Hardin. Perry, unbeknown to Beeley, knew Hardin and had also been having martial issues.
The initial case which sought to determine by instruction of the trial judge, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Beeley had assault Hardin and that he was not justified in coming to Perry’s assistance. Beeley was convicted of assault and breaking and entering. In his appeal, Beeley appealed the trial judge’s wrongful instruction of the jury. Case documents state The first rule, adopted by the trial justice in the instant case, is sometimes referred to as the "alter ego" rule, and it holds that the
