Massad Ayoob, one of the most prolific firearm instructors, said that if you have to defend yourself using a gun, you should hope your attacker survives. Because if your attacker dies, a prosecutor can invent a plausible-sounding story as to how your attacker wasn’t posing any real threat, and your “self defense” was actually murder. But if the attacker survives, he can be subpoenaed to testify. And most criminals are bad at testifying.
Kyle Rittenhouse may have been saved by Gaige Grosskreutz’s disastrous testimony.
As a prolific criminal defense attorney, I cannot endorse that advice on those grounds. You should always hope that your attacker survives because killing someone (even if ultimately justified) exposes you to more serious legal jeopardy. Grosskreutz’s testimony was disastrous not because he was a criminal who was bad at testifying, but because he told the truth and the truth happened to be on Rittenhouse’s side. An attacker getting killed doesn’t mean one cannot draw inferences based on the circumstances.
Massad Ayoob, one of the most prolific firearm instructors, said that if you have to defend yourself using a gun, you should hope your attacker survives. Because if your attacker dies, a prosecutor can invent a plausible-sounding story as to how your attacker wasn’t posing any real threat, and your “self defense” was actually murder. But if the attacker survives, he can be subpoenaed to testify. And most criminals are bad at testifying.
Kyle Rittenhouse may have been saved by Gaige Grosskreutz’s disastrous testimony.
As a prolific criminal defense attorney, I cannot endorse that advice on those grounds. You should always hope that your attacker survives because killing someone (even if ultimately justified) exposes you to more serious legal jeopardy. Grosskreutz’s testimony was disastrous not because he was a criminal who was bad at testifying, but because he told the truth and the truth happened to be on Rittenhouse’s side. An attacker getting killed doesn’t mean one cannot draw inferences based on the circumstances.
I’ve heard the opposite—a dead shooting victim means there aren’t any witnesses to contradict your story.
This is also true