Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

This case explains the Minnesota law on when you can plead self-defense. The burden is on the Defendant to prove facts to the judge before being entitled to argue self-defense to the jury. The judge decides what defense you can present to the jury. You have no Right to plead self-defense.

That’s fine for this guy, he’s an obvious trouble-maker; but what about the next time a White guy shoots a Black yute and Al Sharpton’s mob shows up? Are we going to get even-handed justice or political theatre that denies God-given rights existing long before the Constitution was adopted?

I showed this case to an acquaintance, who said:

“As for the question whether this Defendant had a reasonable belief of personal threat to his well-being: Of course he did. Only White, liberal, former-prosecutors-appointed-judges don’t know that.

In this Defendant’s world, in the cesspool that he swims, the true state of affairs, the reality, the actual fact is that yes, whoever is banging on the door at that time of night is more likely than not armed, and is almost certainly there to do you harm. It’s as true for a Black man living in North Minneapolis as for an Italian in Brooklyn or a Cuban in Miami.

Liberals can’t reconcile this reality with their self-delusion as to the underclass. They believe the Poor are Victims and Victims are Passive, except when they’re erupting in well-deserved riots against Rich White people. The notion that people in the under-class routinely behave worse than people in the middle class is contrary to The Narrative. Liberals prefer their vision of reality to the Defendant’s objective reality and thus deny him a chance to justify his actions.”

I think Minnesota’s law is too strict. If you want to argue self-defense, you ought to be allowed to. The jury can sniff out when it’s a bogus
claim. Preventing Defendants from putting on a defense is bad policy.

Joe Doakes

i’m trying to imagine a group that would push back harder against having their discretion pared back than prosecutors and the police; judges would probably qualify.

But Joe is right. That would’ve been one of the handy benefits of the “Stand Your Ground” law the Governor vetoed a few years back.