YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS | What does the new ‘Stand Your Ground’ law mean for me?

After originally threatening a veto and over the objections of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the Ohio Association of Police Chiefs, Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 175 on Jan. 4 making Ohio the 36th state in the nation to adopt “Stand Your Ground” legislation.

The law went into effect on Tuesday. In this week’s column, I will compare "Stand Your Ground” to the “Castle Doctrine” that it supplants and offer some sage legal advice Ohioans should consider before pulling the trigger.

Like many American legal principles, the Castle Doctrine is based on English common law and literally means that a person’s home is their castle and they have the right to defend it.

Ohio’s version of the doctrine holds that a person is presumed to have acted in self-defense if they use force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to someone who has unlawfully entered their residence or vehicle if the following conditions apply:

• The person using deadly force did not create the situation;
• A threat of imminent or immediate death existed;
• The use of deadly force was reasonable under the circumstances;
• The person using deadly force could not retreat from the situation;
• The invader was not fleeing from the home or vehicle.

It is important to note that until recently Ohio was the only state that required people claiming self-defense under the Castle Doctrine to prove their use of force was justified. Passage of HB 228 in 2018 shifted the burden of proof to the prosecution.

The new law differs from the old doctrine in two significant ways.

First, the right to use deadly force for self-defense now extends outside a person’s house or vehicle to any place the person has a right to be: a parking lot, street, sidewalk, park, golf course, marina and other locations too numerous to mention. As long as the person using force is not trespassing, they enjoy the self-defense presumption.

The second change involves the duty to retreat. Under the new law Ohioans can now feel free to stand their ground and stand and fire: “A trier of fact shall not consider the possibility of retreat as a factor in determining whether or not a person who used force in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of that person’s residence reasonably believed that the force was necessary to prevent injury, loss, or risk to life or safety.”

Here is where the sage legal advice comes in: Just because you can do something does not mean you should.

Whenever asked, I have always urged people to do anything and everything possible to avoid using deadly force, including retreating as quickly as possible from a dangerous situation. Here is why: Even though the law permits the use of deadly force, the person who pulls the trigger is almost certainly going to be charged with a crime. That means he or she will need to mount a costly defense, endure a lengthy trial, and even if acquitted, spend a lifetime dealing with the emotional and psychological toll exacted by killing another human being.

To me, that is too high a price to pay if it is possible to walk or run away…

— Attorney David Betras, a senior partner at Betras, Kopp & Harshman LLC., directs the firm’s non-litigation activities and practices criminal defense law in both the state and federal courts. He has practiced law for 35 years. Have a legal question you'd like answered here? Send it to news@mahoningmatters.com.

This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 4:23 AM with the headline "YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS | What does the new ‘Stand Your Ground’ law mean for me?."