After a two-week investigation, the prosecutor here charged a white suburban homeowner on Friday with second-degree murder in the killing of an unarmed young black woman. The prosecutor rejected the man’s assertion that he had been acting in self-defense when he opened his front door and fired a shotgun at the woman through a locked screen door, striking her in the face.
The man, Theodore Paul Wafer, who is white and an employee at the Wayne County Airport Authority, entered a not guilty plea during an arraignment on Friday. Mr. Wafer had told the police that he believed the woman was breaking into his home. The prosecutor, Kym Worthy, said that she found no evidence of an attempted break-in and that the woman, Renisha Marie McBride, 19, had been knocking on the door.
The shooting has ignited an anguished conversation in this largely black city and beyond about why another unarmed black person has been killed and whether the legal system would call anyone to account. It was the third high-profile, racially charged case this year, following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida and the recent police shooting of Jonathan Ferrell in North Carolina after he sought help following a car accident.
Ms. Worthy, who is the Wayne County prosecutor and who herself is black, said, “Race is not relevant.” She based her decision “on the facts and the evidence” and not on public opinion or mounting comparisons to other cases, she said.
This is first-degree murder in Michigan and this is second-degree.
This is self defense.
Yatsuno
GOOD.
Gian
I don’t think you should get self defense for shooting someone in the back…
but IIRC this happened to a Japanese exchange student trick or treating on Halloween and the shooter walked.
the what degree of murder and is it manslaughter are the things I’d ponder…
rikyrah
He opened the door and shot her in the back.
Murderer.
David Koch
can you imagine the “libuerl” media hysteria if a black man shot a young white woman in the face who was knocking on his door.
Kay
@efgoldman:
No duty to retreat IF…
The prosecutor says a doesn’t apply and b doesn’t either, so duty to retreat and second degree murder.
Omnes Omnibus
Second degree is the right charge. I have trouble seeing how a person could “honestly and reasonably” believe him/herself in danger from someone knocking at the door. It is going to be hard to establish self defense.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: All except the very first unconfirmed accounts are that he shot her in the face, not the back. Not defending or excusing him, just noting that it’s important to work with actual facts. Even the quoted story says “in the face.”
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t understand how the duty to retreat could apply when you’re in your own home.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think Worthy is well-regarded. I don’t know, but that is my sense from what I’ve read. Which is good because we’ll get a competently-conducted trial at least.
trollhattan
Us and our f#@king guns. Whatever became of the stern rebuke?
Kay
@Baud:
Well, that’s the Castle Doctrine, generally, but she’s following a specific Michigan statute:
If you follow the link that’s exactly what the law says. The issue here is “reasonable”.
Yatsuno
@trollhattan: I don’t see nothin’ bout no stern rebuke in the Konstitooshun you socialist hippie. 2ND AMENDMENT 4EVA!!!
Short Bus Bully
Prosecutor is smart. She is not the one to carry the “racial outrage” banner. That belongs to us trolls on the intertrons. She must stick strictly to facts to have a chance to nail this motherfucker.
Baud
@Kay:
Okay. That makes sense. It’s a general self defense claim. I guess I was just confused as to how any duty to retreat would fit in.
Percysowner
never mind
Alison
Considering he shot her from at least some distance and through a locked screen door I say bullfuckingshit to any claim of self-defense or defending his fucking castle or whatever. She was a young woman knocking on his door. If he was so fucking scared he didn’t have to open it, and even still, he had the damn locked screen door between them. What, did he think she was gonna turn into the Incredible Hulk and rip the door off the hinges? No, he opened the door, saw a black person, freaked out, shot first and asked questions later, except his only question is apparently “so what?”.
This asshole better do some jail time.
Kay
@Baud:
He’s also charged with manslaughter, but this would have been a problem for his defense in any event:
I don’t know how he would use self defense if the shooting wasn’t deliberate. He has the “feared for his life” which is fine, but then accidentally shooting her? I think that complicates matters for him.
Howard Beale IV
As an ex-pat Detroiter, it’s a damn good thing that the Wayne County Prosecutor did the right thing here.
The one thing that always stuck in my craw is the fact that Michigan has this twisted ‘use of a firearm’ in commission of the crime that results in a measly 2 year sentence. Fuck that-anyone who uses a firearm in any situation declares they are willing to use deadly force-and at the same time accepts that they themselves could be killed, castle doctrine be damned.
Anyone preemtively pulling a firearm gets whatever happens to them.
Bobby Thomson
@Kay: There are two ways of reading that statute. One is that there is no duty to retreat if either (a) or (b) exists. The other, which appears to be the prosecutor’s reading, is that you can use deadly force if (1) you are in a place where you have no duty to retreat AND (2) either (a) or (b) exists. Either way, the use of deadly force is not justified unless (a) or (b) exists. So, no threat of imminent death or imminent “great bodily harm” and no imminent threat of sexual assault => no authorized use of deadly force.
trollhattan
@Kay:
“All of me was a-skeert ceptin’ mah right index finger. I can’t ‘splain him.”
Baud
@Kay:
Well, it wasn’t an accident that he was pointing a gun at her.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know how “self defense” plays into “came to door with gun and then accidentally shot her”. It’s just hard to put together for him. Did he fear for his life to the extent that he could claim self defense but didn’t deliberately shoot her? Or did he not actually fear for his life but ended up shooting her?
I think “accidental” leads away from “feared for his life”, but I don’t know.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: I don’t see the first reading at all. The only reading that makes sense to me is the second one.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t think it makes any difference.
lamh36
]So he shot her THROUGH the locked screen door? If not, then he basically opened his door and his screen door to a person he “suspected” was breaking in?
Does that make ANY damn sense to anyone? He opened the door with shotgun in hand? If you do that, the you darn sure ain’t pointing it down, if he had and it did go off by accident, then it darn well wouldn’t have “shot her in the face”. The gun had to have been pointed at her…correct.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: You are probably right. Self defense ultimately will rest on “reasonably.” I tend to have pro-defense leanings in my interpretations, but I find it hard to see how self defense is workable here.
max
@Baud: Well, it wasn’t an accident that he was pointing a gun at her.
Right. If it was an accident, that would downgrade the charge to manslaughter.
At any rate, an unarmed teenager knocking on a front door doesn’t present any “imminent death of or imminent great bodily harm” to a reasonable person. Pointing the gun at her from inside his own house is legal – shooting her is not legal unless she presents some threat. What would that threat be?
Meantime, it doesn’t make first degree murder because… “Murder perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait, or any other willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing.” … it’s not premeditated, based on the evidence.
(Of course, if he was say emailing his friends and saying stuff like ‘the next n****** that knocks on my door gets it’ that would be premeditated and up the charge to first degree. Because willful, deliberate, premeditated *and* lying in wait.
max
[‘If his defense is ‘she was black, of course I shot her’ then he’s screwed.’]
Yatsuno
@max:
I would hope his lawyer would not let him be that stupid.
Roger Moore
@Alison:
If he thought she was going to turn into the Incredible Hulk, shooting her would be a terrible move, since it would just piss her off.
Kay
@lamh36:
Well, here’s what he could say. He could say he thought she was breaking in (her knocking will be a problem there, of course) so he went to the inner door and opened it to scare away the intruder with his gun and then it went off accidentally.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: He could say that, but who, fearing for his life, opens the solid barrier – the door – between himself and his “menacer.” It doesn’t seem reasonable to me. My take is that he heard a knock at his door late at night, answered the door gun in hand, and then freaked out at the scary black person. Imperfect self defense – he may have honestly believed his life to be in danger but the belief was not reasonable. We’ll see what the defense actually says. I am just speculating on the publicly available info.
trex
The shooting has ignited an anguished conversation in this largely black city and beyond about why another unarmed black person has been killed
Just to provide some clarification, the suburb of Dearborn Heights itself is not “largely black.” It is 86% white and does not abut Detroit. It is considered a fairly safe bedroom community. That may provide some insight into the mindset of the shooter.
Snarki, child of Loki
@max: “Pointing the gun at her from inside his own house is legal…”
Don’t think so. Assault with a deadly weapon.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Me neither, but I’d leave the door closed and call the police if I were scared.
I just hope they pay attention to the role of gun enthusiasm in this when choosing the jury.
My husband said during the Zimmerman trial that he felt the jurors’ attitudes about guns would play a huge role and I think he was right. He does a lot of criminal trial work, and he’s done both sides, state and defense. I listened to the state’s close and they seemed to be aware of it: the prosecutor did a lot of apologizing for being mean to guns: “no one is QUESTIONING the RIGHT…” Like that. I was a little appalled, but he was probably responding to gun rights sympathy/fervor in the jury.
They need to ask the jurors their feelings on guns. It’s in this.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: I think we’ve dispensed with the whole “fearing for ones life” aspect long ago. We’ve replaced that with “annoyed that I have to shoot someone”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Interesting take on this. Jury selection will be key overall. Wayne County includes Detroit. It is less than 50% white. The jury damn well should reflect this.
@Suffern ACE: I am not that cynical.
Bobby Thomson
@Omnes Omnibus: Isolate this:
This isn’t my particular sport, so it may well be that no one ever reads it that way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: I think that Kay was right above. It is probably a distinction without a difference. Ultimately, it comes down to the reasonableness of the accused’s perception of danger.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, come on! “Knocking on the door while blah” is very clearly tantamount to using an Abrams tank to bulldoze through the door as a prelude to stealing the TV and kidnapping to sell into slavery any children present.
You’re obviously not a Confederate caveman lawyer.
Bobby Thomson
@Omnes Omnibus:
That was also my take. He seems to be getting ready to argue that it was a reflex action and therefore an accident – but those are some messed up reflexes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: As the facts stand right now, “Knocking on the door while blah” appears to be what is available for self defense. I don’t think it flies in Wayne County.
I had a great great grandfather with Sherman all the way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: For self defense to work, it has to have been a reasonable response. A reflexive response is, by definition, not reasonable. From what I know right now, the defense’s best option is imperfect self defense – he honestly felt that he was in danger, but that feeling was not reasonable. It would change the verdict from 2d degree murder to manslaughter. I would not be surprised if a plea deal ends up there.
burnspbesq
@max:
Not at all. Only takes one Neanderthal to hang a jury.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Hence the importance of jury selection.
Steve Crickmore
In wingnut America, don’t shotgun/ houseowners think of first calling 911, if they feel in danger, or is that for them, an ‘unamerican’ course of action. .
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Probably this guy.
TheHalfrican
She had double the legal alcohol limit and some weed in her system. Green light for RW to demonize her as a thug that deserved to die. Ohhhh we wouldn’t even hear about this if it wasn’t for the race-baiting hustler pimps like Rev Al! The MSM doesn’t talk about all the black-on-white crimes!
Ugh. I really wish the Left in this country would just give up on Gun Control and start hoarding guns already. Sorry MLK, but some of these sons of former slave owners would sooner throw a Molotov at that table of brotherhood than sit at it.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@efgoldman:
But the shooting didn’t occur in Detroit. It occurred in a suburb, and a suburb with a smaller (7.9%) population of African-Americans.
The jury will be chosen from a county-wide pool, though, so there will almost certainly be a few African-Americans on the jury.
Suzanne
There are times that I regret never having served on a jury, because I think I would be really awesome at thoughtfully, fairly, and rationally convicting douchenozzles like this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Honestly, in the defense work I have done during my career, you are exactly the kind of person I wanted to find and exclude during jury selection.
? Martin
Could we be a more chickenshit nation?
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: WTF?
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I don’t know, but there seem to be plenty of people willing to give it the old college try.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know whether to be honored or offended.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Neither. You would present as a decent person who could not be objective. That is, if I did my job correctly during voir-dire. there is nothing wrong with being that person. But, if you are that person, you shouldn’t be on the jury.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: We’ve got this enormous population in the US that seems to be convinced they live in a zombie movie and have armed themselves accordingly. They are quite simply terrified of their fellow citizens.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I CAN be objective. Hearing about cases like this makes me not want to be, though.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin:Reasonable charges were filed against the alleged perpetrator. The prosecutor has done everything right so far. The system is working so far. I think it is bullshit to say that “we” are a chickenshit nation because someone seems to have committed a crime.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne:
This is why I would want you out. I would not want to subject you to temptation. You would be a risk; I would want you gone.
ETA: I think that a minimum of a voluntary manslaughter result is appropriate here. I am just trying to look at it with objective lawyer eyes.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not questioning how the case has been handled. I’m questioning why an injured, inebriated teenager, even at 1AM needs to be confronted with a shotgun. Or a teenager walking back from a convenience store. Or a group of moms gathering for a meeting.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: Well, that is why the murder charges were filed. It shouldn’t have happened. Obviousfuckingly.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: But neither is it a deterrent. We’ll buy more guns. We’ll buy more ammo. We’ll confront more teenagers with shotguns.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: If your thing is concern about why many Americans don’t behave well, then, fuck it, I can’t answer it. But the system is trying. Can you suggest an alternative?
JordanRules
@Omnes Omnibus: I think there is a large population of Americans that are chickenshit. Why so many guns and gun fetishists? Why so many fearful of a Goverment and/or minority takeover? A good portion of American gun culture is a blatant attempt to hide severely dysfunctional and irrational fear.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: @Omnes Omnibus: If people get prosecuted and convicted for things like this, it is likely that things like this will stop. Shoot a black kid and go to prison makes it less likely that people will shoot a black kid. Is there a problem with this logic?
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: We need to stop portraying gun ownership as manly, and instead portray it as cowardly. CNN should be running the headline ‘Is this the biggest coward in America?’
Calming influence
TV crime shows I watched as a kid had a basic premise: cops didn’t shoot until they were shot at. I know that’s “Hollywood”, but it was also pretty clearly the public perception of right and wrong. No gun? Wasn’t a “clean shooting”, and the cops ass was grass.
Today in the real world, the only threshold for the use of a gun is that the cop feels in some way “threatened”. Apparently the cop doesn’t even need to see a weapon – just walking toward a cop is justification for deadly force.
Protect and Serve:
Protect the cop’s life, above all else;
Serve up some military-grade violence against unarmed civilians.
We’ve got to straighten this shit out.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: another textbook example on how Faux and the GOP’s promotion of the racial differences amongst us have far reaching repercussions, and I’m not saying that every time you meet someone not matching your own pigmentation is going to be a kumbaya moment, but really, if someone is coming for you, it’s kinda unlikely that they’re going to ring your bell and hang out on the porch.
Omnes Omnibus
@JordanRules: Sure, there is a large population of chickenshit racists. I refuse to accept that that population is the majority.
JordanRules
@Omnes Omnibus: The judicial system based on very old and sound principals is a damn good foundation that could use some tweaks. The system in that regard does work a lot. OTOH, you can’t even suggest systemic alternatives in regards to guns and that is a huge problem; fear is right there fueling much of it.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: I own three guns. Two shotguns and a rifle. I keep no ammunition in my home. I have hunted and trap shot with those guns. Does this make me a coward?
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s more likely that the laws in Michigan will change to make it not illegal.
Besides, gun owners never make mistakes. Sure, that guy did, but I’m different. I would have been able to tell she wasn’t threat. I could have shot the gun out of that guys hands. I would have been been able to tell the good guys from the bad guys. They will tell you that every time. Every dead kid is someone else’s mistake, not mine. Every guy doing life in prison is their fault, but I have better judgement – this gun gives me superpowers.
JordanRules
@Omnes Omnibus: True, that is good logic. I guess I think the history of the judicial systems faliability being particulary exploited to the detriment of minorities and a proving ground for race, class and gender privilege makes me a bit cynical in this regard. Plus the deaths sound almost like collateral damage; I’d rather a white dude not fear a black person coming to the door in the first place and not keep having to tie black life to crime even as a victim. But yes, prosecution is a start.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin:
Offer of proof?
The rest is pure fiction. And cynical as fuck. Based on this view, it really doesn’t matter of if this accused is convicted; the next will be different. If this is true, why bother? About any criminal offense… Basically, you are denying the concept of deterrence. That seems weird.
Omnes Omnibus
@JordanRules: Right now, the system is working. Would it be better if the girl hadn’t been shot by some dude who clearly had issues, oh god yes. But he did, and the question is now what? They are doing it right. It is the best I can ask of the system. Now, what I can ask of society is different. This killing should never have happened, an how to fix what led to it is another thing. I don’t know how to fix it. I wish I did.
Napoleon
@efgoldman:
No it was not, it was in a suburb.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
If its a ‘burb, why does he answer a knock on the door with a gun? where is all the fear coming from? fox news?
Cervantes
@? Martin: No, I don’t think so.
[SATSQ.]
JoyfulA
An elderly friend bought a flat-screen TV and wanted help to move his giant floor-model to the curb for trash pickup. “No sweat,” says I. “I’ll freecycle it for you, and the recipients will carry it out themselves.”
Someone on Freecycle was delighted to get a big TV for their rec room, and a pickup was scheduled.
“How’d it go?” I asked the 90-year-old. He said everything was fine. He kept one of his guns in his pocket the whole time, but the couple didn’t try anything.
What is wrong with people!!!
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
I was on two murder juries, foreman of one, and we acquited both times. Unanimously, of course, we felt the first defendent was legitimately in fear of his life, as the victim was a paroled murderer originally sent up in part by testimony from the defendant, AND the victim spent all his time after being paroled cursing the defendant and promising to kill him.
The defendant was a hard working straight up guy and the “victim” was known to be a violent and unpredictable goon available for murder for hire.
The second time I declined the honor of being foreman, since I had just been foreman and several of the jurors from that trial were on the second jury. In this case there was lots of evidence that the actual shot fired by accident, since the gun was in a holster when it went off, and no one could point to a motive. The jury instructions only allowed for first degree murder or acquital.
Not easy.
Cervantes
@JoyfulA: What is wrong with people!!!
Here’s your answer in the form of a rhetorical question.
CDWard
What this guy deserves is a short drop and a sudden stop.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Baud:
Duty to CLOSE THE FUCKING DOOR then?
johnny aquitard
@? Martin:
Funny you should mention that. The term ‘zombie’ as a euphemism for n*Clang has become widrspread in gun blogs in the last, uh, lets see 2009, 2010,.. ok about five years. It’s even gone mainstrem in that major ammunition companies make ‘zombie’ (as in zombie killer) themed ammunition.
The zombie horror genre was always about the terror of the ultimate Other. Not too hard to see why it became even more focused as to who that Other is. It’s the latest percieved existential threat to white people, at least to white bigoted people.
johnny aquitard
@johnny aquitard: These crackers are terrified of Teh Blah in the same way all those ‘normal’ people in the zombie movies are of the walking dead. They both feel like the embattled survivors, living life under the gun, with death just behind the next door. Because a pestilence is loosed upon the world, the natural order of things is upside down now, nature is unnatural, abomination (or should I say Obammination) walks the land. The natural order has been inverted. What was safely dead and buried has arisen and now walks and hungers for, they believe, the end of life as they know it.
These people have frightened themselves into la-la land. And into killing ordinary harmless innocent people because of their own guilty imaginations.
johnny aquitard
@Omnes Omnibus: There isn’t. Trouble is, that’s not what’s happening. You can in fact legally shoot a black teen based whatever you say frightens you. Unreasonable fear of black teens has been accepted as reasonable.
The message the Zimmerman case sent was loud and clear to white people just like Zimmerman.
I’m not trying to excuse it, I’m just trying to explain it.
Paul in KY
@Alison: He also was carrying a 12 gauge shotgun at time.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: If there are no firearms or crossbows or that stuff, we go back to Game of Throne days where those who are largest & best with close quarter weapons rule (IMO).
I am short & not good with those kinds of weapons & I’ll be damned if some huge asshole is going to be able to mess me up just because he’s a foot taller than me & I have no way to combat that.