Defending yourself and property
Recently Georgia joined Indiana and fifteen other states in enacting a “stand your ground” law which allows citizens to use deadly force in responding to threats in public places, without a duty to first retreat. Similar bills are pending in 16 additional states.
Currently the majority common law view found in a majority of states requires that deadly force only be used when death or serious bodily injury is reasonably likely to occur. With the laws which appear to be gaining ground, deadly force can be used to defend yourself or a third person to prevent the commission of a forcible felony (IC 35-41-3-2).
But these states, and especially Indiana, are also liberalizing the justification of force in defense of property. The common view is that deadly force may never be used merely to defend property. Indeed my bar exam review materials take pains to bold and italicize that statement. Yet in Indiana, and perhaps a growing number of states, a person is in fact justified in using deadly force “to prevent or terminate the other person’s unlawful entry of or attack on his dwelling or curtilage.”
“Curtilage” is the area immediately surrounding a residence, and the mere throwing of stones at a house could reasonably be considered an “attack on” a curtilage. Like it or not, that’s the law in Indiana and what appears to be a growing number of other states.
