This is many gun control advocates ideal law of self-defense. A man shoots another man who allegedly broke down his door, faces 2nd degree murder charges:
The state has charged Matthew Pinkerton with 2nd Degree Murder. Their sole basis for this charge is that he should have called 911.
Here’s the original news article that came out after the shooting. It looks like this started as a domestic situation. If the facts here are true as presented, I doubt they’ll find a jury that will convict this guy, and it will be a disgrace that he was made to undergo the cost and mental anguish of a trial.
Legal costs for the Pinkerton family have been mounting. According to Michael, “they already had to take out a loan for 25k to get him out on bond†and “now is lawyer fees are another 25k; all for defending his home and family.â€
That said, I’d like to see the Bill of Indictment, Information, or the Bill of Particulars his attorney has filed for if you look the case up online. I do believe that prosecutors can often be overzealous, and prosecute in cases that are legitimate self-defense. The Gerald Ung case comes to mind in Philadelphia. But prosecutors generally don’t like to take hopeless cases to trial. If the facts are as presented, this a likely loss in a jury trial. I’m willing to be outraged, but I suspect there’s more to this case than is being told, and I’d like all the facts before passing full judgement. But I agree on the surface, this doesn’t look good. If anyone can find me public records that describe the particulars, I’d be grateful.
There is definitely more to this story. Looks like the Green guy and his mom had been living with Mrs. Pinkerton while Mr. Pinkerton was deployed oversees. Upon Mr. Pinkerton’s eminent return stateside to his home, he informed his wife that she would have to kick out all of the “hangers on” that had been living with her while he was away. Mrs. Pinkerton intimates that Mr. Green wanted more but that she rebuffed him. From the article:
“While [Mr. Pinkerton] was overseas serving in Korea, Jessica’s brother was in a horrific car accident and was in a coma for 11 days. Green was a friend of her brother who, along with other friends, volunteered to help Jessica with the kids and her brother.” “Most of the friends began fading off the longer my brother remained in the hospital. Green, however, began fighting with his mom and needed a place to sleep. Matt and I have opened our doors to multiple people who needed a place to stay over our 15 years of marriage, so I allowed him to stay here. I also had a single mother with her two girls living here at the time as well.”
So either Mrs. Pinkerton had an affair with Mr. Green while her husband was away on duty, or she decided to benefit from his attraction to her to get some help in her life. When he was informed that he would have to leave, Mr. Green proceeded to punch holes in the walls of the home.
After Mr. Pinkerton’s return to the homestead, Mr. Green showed up and tried to barge into the house after Mr. Pinkerton tried to close the door on him. Personally, I think Mrs. Pinkerton has some explaining to do. However, this Green character was unknown to Mr. Pinkerton, and he violated the non-agression principle. When are people going to get it through their thick skulls that there are very real consequences to violating that principle. Indians call it karma.
this is Maryland. Facts and logic are irrelevant. Application of self defense law is extremely uneven. They arrested and decided to prosecute immediately, before the facts were all in.
Another vote for “wait and see.” This isn’t a case of a stranger burglarizing the house, then menacing the homeowner. When one shoots one’s wife’s possible paramour, the facts deserve a l-o-n-g intensive examination.
They have already filed charges against him. Ostensibly they have done such an investigation and should know if there is more or not. But in reality, they haven’t bothered to investigate squat and are happy to assume there is more than they can prove and hope they get a dumb jury.