A brief summary of the case from the StarTribune:
A Little Falls-area man has been arrested in connection with the Thanksgiving Day killings of two teenagers after their bodies were discovered in his basement, the Morrison County Sheriff's Office said...The embedded video, from the AP via the Los Angeles Times, presents the case as viewed by local law enforcement officials. Wikipedia has a page on the "Castle Doctrine" -
Neighbor John Lange said that Smith's home had been burglarized at least twice before by area teens and that he might have "snapped" this time when he heard intruders enter a bedroom window. The shootings occurred in Smith's basement, Lange said.
Lange said Smith had worked in security and lived with his aging mother until she recently died. Smith volunteered as a Scout leader, paid area teens to work around his house, and allowed Lange's son to practice with his band in his garage, Lange added. "He's a really decent guy. I think he just snapped."
A Castle Doctrine (also known as a Castle Law or a Defense of Habitation Law) is an American legal doctrine that designates a person's abode... as a place in which the person has certain protections and immunities and may in certain circumstances use force, up to and including deadly force, to defend against an intruder without becoming liable to prosecution. Typically deadly force is considered justified, and a defense of justifiable homicide applicable, in cases "when the actor reasonably fears imminent peril of death or serious bodily harm to himself or another"...
The term derives from the historic English common law dictum that "an Englishman's home is his castle". This concept was established as English law by 17th century jurist Sir Edward Coke, in his The Institutes of the Laws of England, 1628. The dictum was carried by colonists to the New World, who later removed "English" from the phrase, making it "a man's home is his castle", which thereby became simply the Castle Doctrine...
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