Florida Justice

[Ninurta]

@"GeauxHomeLittleD" 

I was told by a deputy a long while back,

"It is better to be tried by twelve, than carried by six."

He also told me to shoot the intruder that was trying to enter, and just pull his body the rest of the way in the house.

Oh, and he said,"Shoot to kill not to maim, it saves you a lot of grief and courtroom time."

But Florida is well known to be a bit off.

It's not just Florida and Texas.

Many years ago, I used to train cops in Virginia. We've said "it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6" at least since those days, and I suspect much farther back.

One day we had a bunch of current police and deputies at the academy for their annual 2 weeks of :"in service" training. During a break, making conversation, I asked a veteran cop whether he would shoot to kill or shoot to wound, and his response was "I won't say which I'd do, but I will say that dead men tell no tales, and in court it would be my word against his if he accidentally up and died of lead poisoning... and he wouldn't be saying many words to contradict me".

In Virginia, the "drag 'em inside before you call the cops" is an old wives tale. All you have to have here is evidence that they were trying to break in, like jimmying scars on a door or window, and your statement that you were in fear for your life, whether the body is inside or outside. Matter of fact, dragging a body inside here could get you imprisoned for tampering with evidence if you don't have a damned good reason for it, something like "he was still alive but had labored breathing, and I had to get him inside into the light to administer CPR.", so we don't do that in Virginia. We just let 'em bleed out on the welcome mat if that's where we have to shoot 'em.

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