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Q: [In the Hockey Dad fight,] the media would have you believe that they were two upstanding guys who just had a fight and one went too far. Junta was apparently not the aggressor, he was hit first. He defended himself, he lost his temper, and did more than was absolutely necessary. Costen picked on the wrong guy and he paid a heavy price, but he started the fight. Junta should not go to prison for defending himself. The fight was forced on Junta according to the witnesses. A: It looks to me like Costin basically started it (twice) and I agree with you, someone should not go to prison for defending themselves.BUT, when Junta had Costin in a position that he could no longer defend himself (sometimes you will see this referred to as having the opponent "in chancery", meaning an inescapable position) then Junta could have and should have let off. I think the fact that he had Costin mounted, struck him repeatedly and took two hands and smashed Costin's head into the ground led to the charges. Plus, when someone dies -- you are going to jail. Here's a weird case for you -- a cop is in a bar (off duty) and three punks recognize him from an earlier arrest. They trade verbal barbs back and forth. A fistfight breaks out and the cop finds himself on the floor getting the boots from all three punks. He draws his firearm from his ankle holster and -- from the floor -- shoots all three of the attackers. Cop was guilty of one count of manslaughter. Because of the disparity of force (3 on 1) the cop was justified in using deadly force UNTIL there was only one attacker left. The court felt that then it was 1 on 1 and therefore a "fair" fight. When the cop shot the last guy, it was manslaughter. In the Junta case, the medical examiner said
there were at least 15 areas of trauma on the deceased. |
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