Walk It Through: The Door At Two In The Morning
A forced entry, the presumption, the officer exception and the trespasser in the yard.
Someone is forcing the back door of an occupied house in the middle of the night.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One home and two nights. Force in public places, the immunity hearing, defense of others and nondeadly force, and the civil claims a shooting can bring are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Castle DoctrineThe common law doctrine that a person's home is his castle, which the General Assembly stated its intent to codify and to extend to an occupied vehicle and a place of business.
- Crime of violenceIn the handgun article, murder, manslaughter other than negligent manslaughter from a traffic accident, rape, mayhem, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, housebreaking, and the assaults the definitions list.
- Duty to retreatAn obligation to withdraw before using force. A person not engaged in an unlawful activity who is attacked where they have a right to be has none, and may meet force with force, including deadly force, if they reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death, great bodily injury or a violent crime.
- DwellingIn the self defense article, a building or conveyance of any kind with a roof, including an attached porch and a tent, designed to be occupied by people lodging there at night, temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile.
- Great bodily injuryBodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ.
- Law enforcement officerFor the resisting arrest article, any duly appointed or commissioned officer of the state, a county or a municipality.
- Purple paintOne of two ways to post land against entry: a vertical purple line at least eight inches long and two inches wide, three to six feet off the ground, on permanent objects no more than one hundred yards apart.
- Trespass after noticeEntering another's dwelling, business or premises without legal cause after being warned not to, or failing to leave immediately when the person in possession asks.